Oh Jackson...

The time has finally come for Jackson to have an all-out haircut.  He has had trims up to this point, but he is really quite a hairy little fellow.  So, Jeremy and I embarked on our daring adventure and started his haircut.  Here's his before shot...

He was so incredibly wiggly that I was certain this was going to be a disaster of a haircut.   But, then something incredible happened.  We got the clippers out to "buzz" the back and he didn't move a muscle the entire rest of his haircut.  Our other boys have all wiggled even more the moment they felt the buzzer for the first time.  But Jackson was so intrigued by his new "massage" that he stayed perfectly still.  Miracles do happen!  Here's the middle of the hair-cut we were sure was doomed for failure.  (At this point, you all would have thought so too!)

And here's the finished product.  Jackson all grown up!  What a little man!

So from now on, Jackson can take a number when it's haircut time.  He gets to get in line with all five of the Ostler men who patiently wait for their turn in Mom's hair salon. (AKA the laundry room)  :) 

We love you Jackson, you adorable little creature!

HAPPY HALLOWEEN!

Jeremy really is weird...

Hi everyone.  This is Jeremy.  Ok, I will come clean and bare all.  There are only a few quirky things about me.  Jacquie already explained all the rules and tagged enough people for the both of us.  Here are the quirky jeremy-isms.

1.     Everyone that has been around me knows I chew my tongue when I am thinking, concentrating, working, bored, etc.  Sometimes I have to wait a few days so my tongue can grow back so I can start chewing again.

2.     I carry around a filing cabinet.  Each of my pockets in my pants have a specific item or items in them, never to be mixed up or out of order.  Hence I usually wear cargo pants with lots of pockets.

3.     I wear my shoes from the moment I wake up to the last moment before I go to sleep at night.  Jacquie is always barefoot. (I will not mention pregnant, that is not funny anymore.  We are done.)

4.     I am the only prepared one.  I carry a tool with me wherever I go.  My trusty leatherwoman. 

5.     When I sneeze, I sneeze a minimum of three times.  And I never say atchoo.  It is always a variation of such.  Ahhchow, ahhchunck, ahhchink, and many more close to the unmentionables.

6.     I can chew on a raspberry seed for hours and never swallow it.  I try to bite it in half before I claim the victory over the seed.  This is my favorite sport.  

I am Sparticus.  Or so Jacquie tells me.  Or was that Flick? 

Quirky this!

My adorable sis-in-law Randi, tagged me with this "Quirky" tag.  I must say that it was pretty hard to think about my personal quirky-ness.  I can tell you every quirky thing about all of my kids.  I had to strain my brain to remember that I am actually a real person in here! :)  Don't worry though; Jeremy didn't seem to have a hard time at all thinking of six for me.  In fact, we had to do a top six!

Here are the rules:

1. Mention the person who tagged you.

2. Mention the rules on your blog.
3. Tell about 6 unspectacular quirks of yours.
4. Tag 6 other bloggers .

So, here you go...the top six unspectacular quirks of mine...

1.  I go absolutely crazy over the smell of a brand new, freshly opened can of tennis balls!  I can't explain it, but it makes me so happy.  Everyone who really loves me lets me have the privilege of opening the can so I can have that very first whiff!  If that's not quirky, then I don't know what is...

2.  I almost always chew my drinks.  Go ahead and laugh...everyone else does!  I have a hard time swallowing anything- liquid or not- that has not been first thoroughly chewed.

3.  I have an aversion to saliva.  Really...the smell of dried saliva (mine, or anyone else's) is just more than I can take! 

4.  When I sing along to any songs, I almost always sing harmony.  Melody can be so boring, but harmony never gets old.  

5.  Ever since I was a baby and continuing still, I get the hiccups almost every day!  Strange...

6.  Last, but not least:  I can hear the mailman coming up my street about a mile away!  My children call it Mom's super-sonic hearing.  The irony of it all is that quite often, I can't hear the end of Jeremy's sentences.  You know, his voice drops off to some inaudible frequency that even my super-sonic powers can not detect!  

So, there you have it!  I'll never even try to pretend I'm not quirky.  

 

And now I tag:  Jeremy, Tressa, Emily D., Brooke, Janey, Julie Mc., and Elyse. (and anyone else who wants to be tagged.)

  

We're getting braver everyday. We went to the zoo!

Thanks to my adorable Mom, we went on a field trip to the zoo!  We had so much fun!  The babies were angels and we've finally decided that we definitely need to get out more.

Isn't she adorable?  You know just how beautiful she is when she can wear an elephant hat and look that good!

Here are our little monkeys... Hogle Zoo has some incredibly cute monkeys!

We just barely missed the pacing cougar in the background of this one.  

Allison and Jackson had so much fun sitting in their stroller and checking everything out.  There was so much to see that they even forgot they were hungry for a good long time!

This year for one of our family's school projects, we are studying animals.  So, we purchased a year pass to the zoo.  Each visit, we all choose our three favorite animals to study.  As soon as we have finished our research on our animals, we get to go back to the zoo and take our pictures in front of the animals we chose to learn about.  Boy, have we learned alot!

One of Landon's favorites are the elephants.  We learned that an elephant drinks 50 gallons of water everyday!  (Almost as much as Jacquie drinks each day!)

Wesley has taught us all so much about African Penguins.  Did you know they live to be about 17 years old and they dig holes to burrow in to avoid the sun?

One of Josh's favorite animals he researched was the Bengal Tiger.  We could not get a picture in front of one...But this Spotted Leopard was pretty cool.  Did you know that Bengal Tigers weigh 400-600 lbs?  And they can climb trees!

So, thanks Mom for a wonderful day at the zoo.  We love you Boomaw!

TWO BABIES!!!

We have TWO babies!  I know that is common knowledge...But, it hits us at random times everyday.  Like when you walk into a room and you see TWO babies playing together on the floor.  

Our sweet babies are growing so fast!  They are eight months now.  In some ways life is getting a little easier.  But, in other ways the fun has just begun!  They are both teething full force and still have an aversion to sleeping at night.  Jer and I sometimes feel like this is some kind of dream, as we are sure that we are just walking in our sleep most of the time.  It is actually quite surprising just how little sleep you can get and still operate!  

Whenever we feel run-down, we just snuggle these sweeties and score some huge smiles and giggles and we realize that it is worth every bit of work.  We are so blessed to have Allison and Jackson in our family.  

The value of silverware...

We had a great dinner last week for Family Home Evening.  We took the opportunity to try to instill a little bit more appreciation in our children for silverware! (which some of our boys have had little or no use for up to this point!)  We chose the craziest utensils we could find in our house and numbered them.  Then, everyone picked a number out of a bag, and VOILA!  Silverware Gratitude 101 began...

Jer sporting his sweet whisk!

What a sight to behold!  We couldn't tell if it was all that hard to eat using our ridiculous utensils because we spent most of the meal laughing!

Shovel it in Landon!  (1/3 cup at a time!)

Wesley was a pro with his avocado slicer and potato masher... He actually totally surprised us all as the most talented participant in our crazy dinner!

How about a tea strainer, anyone?  Josh thought it was quite convenient, actually!

Angela looked dainty with her toothpicks and mini spatula!

Jacquie was left with the salad tongs, which proved to be a rather tidy experience surprisingly enough!

Overall, we had a totally fun and memorable experience.  Now, do our boys appreciate silverware anymore than they did before?  I doubt it... But, I am sure we will always remember our desperate efforts nevertheless!