The Rest of 2010

Over 5 months, that's how long it's been since I lasted posted on my blog, too long! I can't believe it's been that long but then again every time I get on my blog I see Summer swimming pictures and that wonderful Summer weather does seem like a while ago. Life has been fun, busy and eventful just like I'm sure yours has been these last 5 months. Around July my computer no longer would let me upload pictures and sadly that made my blogging less a priority. With the year ending I thought I needed to get on here and journal one of two of the things that have happened to us. There has been so much but here are some of the things that have made up the rest of our 2010.

July-The end of July my sweet friend Stephanie came with her husband and her 2 girls to our town for a visit. It was one of the highlights of my year. I met Stephanie at a PKU cooking workshop in 2008 and we have developed a great friendship over email our kids are pretty close in age. She has been one of my main lifelines to accepting and dealing with PKU. She's an amazing mom to both of her adorable girls who have PKU. It was so wonderful to have her and her wonderful family in town. We did a lot of fun things together, talked and talked and ate a few meals together outside on our lawn. It was really great therapy for me and I'm still waiting for Stephine to send me the bill.=) Thanks for coming Steph I can't wait till we can get our families together again.

Aug.- I had a birthday. I love my birthday, I get that from being raised by my mom. This year I had the best birthday! My sweet sister in law, Elizabeth called all my girl family members and friends and took me out to lunch with all of them, so much fun! I got tons of great birthday gifts and my boys took me out to SLC the day after my birthday to stay at the Grand America and if that wasn't enough Brett had a dozen roses waiting in our room and they had pre-arranged a full day spa experience too it was over the top!

Sept- Jaxson potty trained! Hip Hip Hooray! He basically did it all on his own. Sept. 24 he was having a bath and told us he needed to pee, we got him out, he went potty and diapers were no more. Brett and I were shocked with how easily it happened but also very happy and grateful. It's so nice to not be doing diaper changes.

Oct.-Jaxson was a dinosaur for Halloween. We had a hard time coming up with the right costume idea but once we mentioned a dinosaur to Jaxson he was SOLD. From then on he has been in love with dinosaurs, it's a very nice break from the balls, bats, footballs, etc. Don't get me wrong Jaxson is still playing basketball, football, baseball and soccer daily He loves to see the dinosaurs in our town and sometimes talks about them being his brothers and family.

Nov-We found a home to buy. So exciting! It's being built and it's just a few houses down from our current home we are renting. It's fun to drive by it daily and see the progress. We are picking out things for it and Brett's getting to do the finish work on it. I couldn't be more happy to be getting into a home let alone on the street that I think is the VERY best street in the world. The land use to be a spot that I along with all the neighborhood kids would built forks and play and I think it's so special to raise Jaxson and live on that same spot of land I played hours on as a kid. Also the dinning window has a view of my grandparent's farmland, priceless memories! We are in high hopes of it being done the first part of 2011 and would love for you stop by.

Dec.- Jaxson asked Santa for a dinosaur. I can hardly wait for Christmas morning with him it's going to be too much fun. Brett and I each took him separately to pick out a present for mom and dad and Jaxson is just as excited for his surprises for us and he is for his gifts. He received a letter from Santa a week or so ago in the mail (I'm pretty sure my Uncle sent them out but I'm not 100% sure) telling him that Santa is checking his list and that Jaxson is on the nice list. Jaxson has talked and talked about being on the nice list since that letter but sometimes when he is doing something not so nice, on his own he will tell me that he is on the naughty list. I was telling him the different kinds of cookies and drinks we could leave Santa and he picked Sugar Cookies and water so that is what Santa will find at our home when he drops off Jax dinosaur. I'm not much a winter person and really do not like snow but for Jaxson the snow has been the very best treat. He absolutely LOVES to eat the snow and asks me all the time if he can go get some snow to eat. I myself was never a snow eater child so it's a little crazy to see my son so in love with snow but hey it's protein free so eat as much as you like Jaxson!=)

Brett got a new job in December and now works Monday through Friday. He no longer has to get up at 4am and now has every weekend off which is very nice. He coached our ward YM basketball team this season and they won all the wards in our town so they were the Region Champions. It was a pretty exciting thing for Brett. It made me feel old to watch Brett as the coach since we meet and started liking each other when he was playing church basketball. He is still the YM leader and is currently helping the boys plan a snowboarding trip in Jan which he is very excited for. In fact I think he is more excited for that then Christmas.

Between Jaxson, family life, house work, primary, food and play dates life keeps me pretty busy but I love almost every part of it. I started a new card group in Oct and I'm loving that. I enjoy being a part of my ward's primary presidency but never knew primary could be so busy. It was a huge relief to get the program over with in Nov. and now we are in the mist of getting everything ready and lined out for the 2011 year along with a primary activity before the kids go back from break. The Wednesday after Christmas I'll be cooking over 72 mini muffins for our activity, wish me luck. I also in the last 5 months lost 20lbs but the Christmas goodies do me in every year so I'll need to recommit next week. =)

So that's us in the last 5 months. Merry Christmas!

Our 4th

We stared celebrating the 4th on Saturday evening with a bbq at my parents house. After eating my parents filled up their 3 kiddie pools with warm 110 degrees water. Jaxson is in love with swimming at grandma's and asks me everyday to put his swim diaper on and take him to grandma's to splash. He can't get enough this summer. Elizabeth brought down her red, white and blue polish and did all of our toes so that we were ready for the 4th!

Later that night we joined the Erickson's at MarShel's headstone. Nicki brought some flowers, Carolee brought some 4th of July balloons and we even did a few sparklers for Auntie MarShel.

Jaxson thinks Grandpa Darwin is the coolest with his leathers and motorcycles that he rides!

Ms America 2010!=)

SUNDAY we went to church and afterwards both my boys crashed for a 3 hour nap--LOVED it.=) I got around to watching a lot of shows on my DVR it was fabulous and made for a very relaxing holiday!=) That evening we went to my parents for dinner, did a few fireworks before going to the big fireworks up town after those we went to Nicki's for more fireworks! Jaxson LOVED all the fireworks in fact since the 4th he will ask me from time to time to take him to see the fireworks.

We got Jaxson and Kole matching 4th of July shirts. When I saw this 4th of July baseball shirt it screamed Jaxson to me.

Having a midnight snack before bed.

MONDAY--we watch the good old 4th of July parade. Jaxson actually watched the parade sitting on his cousin Braden's lap. When the 15 year old all-star team came by Braden's friend dumped a full water cooler from the top of firetruck right on them but Jax didn't seem to mind getting wet. After the parade we went shopping, Jaxson's napped, Brett went golfing and I cleaned our house. Not too much celebrating Monday but that was okay we had already had a great 4th of July weekend!

Brett got Jax this hat in Grand Junction (another thing I need to blog about) Jaxson adores this hat and wears it all day and even would even like to wear it to bed if I would let him. He thinks it's his helmet and he must wear it to play baseball and since we do baseball all day he wears it all day.=)

Our Family SLC Trip

For a few months I have wanted to take Jaxson to the Hogle Zoo, Jungle Jims Playground and This Is The Place Heritage Park in SLC. When we went out to SLC every Friday for 2 months for Jaxson's hospital visits either the weather would be bad or we would run out of time. So I finally decided that we just needed to plan a trip with the only purpose being going to these places. When I was telling Brett about this future summer trip I mentioned it might be fun to invite his side of the family since it's always more fun with family right and also they have kids close to Jaxson age. So In June Jaxson's Grandma Carolee, Aunt Nicki, Aunt Roxanna, Aunt Heidi, Uncle Jeff and cousins-Kaysia, Kylen, RyLee, Payton and Jayden joined us for our trip. We left early on a Friday and went straight to Hogle Zoo after the zoo we went to Jungle Jim's Playground then to dinner and then to our hotel . The hotel was really neat I wish we could have gotten there a little earlier but we still had fun. The pool was actually a water park with a miniature play area for the kids, a water slide that went outside of the hotel and then came back into a swimming pool and a hot tub shaped as Mickey Mouse. Saturday we went to This Is The Place which ended up being Brett and my favorite stop of the trip and then ended our trip on a perfect note-Cold Stone ice cream in Park City! It was a wonderful family trip we had a blast and can't wait for the next one!

HOGLE ZOO Waiting with Kaysia for our tickets to get into the zoo. That morning Jaxson told Brett and I, "I can't wait I want to see tiger"

Having fun with the water ball
Cousins! Getting fantastic perfect smiling face forward pictures was a little hard to say the least with this group but we still snapped some great memories

Jax wasn't so sure about this elephant but it made for a neat family shot. I think he thought it was real and it was way too big to be standing near it let alone on it's trunk.

This year Jaxson wanted to ride the tiger. He was all about the tigers this year sorry Zebras.

Aunt Nicki bought Kylen and Jaxson zoo motorcycles and after that they were ready to just play and could have cared less about seeing the zoo. Such boys!

JUNGLE JIMS PLAYGROUND

Jungle Jims has these really neat kid amusement rides, soft playground and carnival games. You can google them if you want to see more they are located in Midvile. We mostly recorded while we were there but I did take a picture. It was fun and there was hardly anyone there so it almost seemed like we had it for a private party but without the cost.

Crazy drivers! Only 14 more years and this sight could be real yikes!

OUR HOTEL

Ready to swim!

Most kids would want to play here but not our little guy

he was all about the hoop and making baskets he's such a sports nut!

After swimming we were exhausted and needed to just chilled. Brett and I got the biggest kick out of Jaxson just laying on his pillow in this big queen bed all by himself with his motorcycle in one hand and his treats in the other he was so adorable.

This Is The Place

Doing a little art work

Petting one of the horse that gives wagon rides

Playing school at one of the old school houses

Riding a pony. Jaxson loved it! The whole time he keep saying "giddy up horsey"

The petting zoo the goats loved Jaxson and he loved feeding them the wood chip

They had a couple of mini play houses that were super cute and replicas of old houses or cabins back in the day for the kids to play in so much fun!

In the play house area they had this really neat wooden train. Jaxson LOVED driving it!

All Aboard!!

Myself, Jaxson, Heidi, Payton and RyLee ready for the

mini train ride around the pond and tunnel

My Guys

Brett and Jaxson had matching ties for Father's Day. I must say they were so cute I couldn't stop looking at them!=) It was a challenge to get a super great pictures. Not only was I working with a guy and a 2 year old but we were running a little late since we had Brett open his Father's Day gifts before 9am church and when we went out to get this pictures there were two loose sheep on our lawn so Jaxson was all about them and not so much about looking at the camera and smiling. A while back Jaxson started really paying attention to ties and has since then insist that he wear a tie just like dad and grandpa to church. I love these two boys they are my world.

We had a great Father's Day. We were able to spend time with both families and most importantly our daddies. I really love watching Brett be a father and am grateful for the wonderful father that I have in my life.

SURPRISE I'm blogging! =) We've had a very busy last 8 weeks for our little family. There is so much I could blog about such as our always wonderful family events, fun cousin times, Memorial Day, Jaxson's first fishing trip, people that we love birthday's, our 7 weeks of weekly Friday trips to SLC for a medical study dealing with PKU at the University of Utah hospital, the summer fun we've been having, what's new with Brett, what's new with myself, daily hilarious things Jaxson has said or done--you get the picture. So rather then feeling overwhelmed and so far behind on blogging I thought I would just share three random pictures that I have captured on my camera and be better at blogging in the weeks to come.=) My little guy melting his kindergarten mother's heart--"reading" one of his favorite books. I was given this book, Red Hat Blue Hat by my mom's friend at the hospital when I had Jax. It has been a favorite of his for a long time. He has started "reading" it by himself. It's very simple and repetitive but it makes me smile down to my toes to see him at the first stages of the reading process! And check out that pointer finger guiding him in his reading! Love it! Jaxson trying out his roller skates he got for his birthday in February. He really enjoyed them for a few minutes. He looked so adorable in his skates and so big. That day Brett and Jaxson had mowed the lawn and it looked so great. I was admiring the yard and said, "boys the lawn looks so great thanks for mowing it" and without skipping a beat Jaxson says, "no problem mommy no problem" After 8 or so weeks of not blogging one thing that has not changed, Jaxson's love or sometime obsession with baseball. He would love to play baseball from moment he woke up till the moment he went to sleep sadly for Jax I don't always go along with that plan but we still play a lot of baseball on a daily bases so I think Jaxson for the most part gets what he wants. For a few days Jaxson insisted that he wear Brett's black baseball hat for his helmet and his cleats when hitting. This week he's into wearing Brett's batting gloves.

Arches Camping Trip

The first of February my brother, Eric and sister-in-law Elizabeth started talking about doing an Olsen family camping trip to the Arches in April. Brett loves to camp so he was in, Jaxson loves being outside so I figured he would love to camp and I didn't want to miss out on the family trip so I said yes too. Then Brett go his new job and the weekend we had booked our camp site for was Brett's weekend to work so sadly he wasn't able to go =( Brett was okay about us going without him so a camping we went. I'm not much of a camper but I had a great time and Jaxson he absolutely loved it. We rode with Uncle Eric and his family it was a full truck with the backseat full of kids, car seats, DVD's (how did anyone ever travel anywhere without these), toys and treats. We had lots of delicious meals. Uncle Greg spoiled us Saturday night and did dutch oven chicken, potatoes, biscuits and peach Carmel cobbler. Jaxson and I slept with Grandpa and Grandma in their tent. My dad had bought a heater before the trip so we were nice and warm the whole night. Eric and Elizabeth took us on hikes Saturday to see all the amazing arches and attractions. The picture don't the arches justice it was so beautiful. We had a campfire every night with lots of smores and marshmallows Jaxson loved watching and talking about the fire. Every night the fire mesmerized him into falling asleep. Jaxson and Brianna enjoyed spending almost 3 whole days together. They rode their bikes down our small hill by our camp, climbed rocks, played in the sand, enjoyed eating their meals together on Brianna's small table, explored our campground together and enjoyed jumping on the air mattresses. We had so much fun I would sign up to go gain. Thanks family for making everything so nice and fun. Here are some snapshots of our Arches Camping Trip:

We made it we're here! Jaxson, Abbie and Brianna Jaxson loved all the rocks that were around for him to climb.

We can home with bruised knees and legs.Uncle Greg helping Jaxson roast a marshmallow. Sadly it wasn't Greg weekend with his kids so there weren't able to come but Greg was a life savor. Not only did he cook us our delicious dutch oven meal (well actually he helped cooked a lot of things) but on Saturday he packed Jaxson on the long hike we went on which my back will be forever indebted to him. =) My little sport fanatic. Can't miss bating practice even if you are on a family camping trip.

Playing crazy 8's before we go hiking.

The first arch we hiked to--Landscape Arch. The whole camping gang!

Balancing Rock--so neat in person

LOVED this arch--Double Arch. It was gorgeous you hiked up into and it was just awesome to sit underneath it (once again the picture doesn't do it justice)


The famous--Delicate Arch that you see on Utah license plates. It was just so cool to be seeing it in person. You can hike closer but that hike will have to be done when the kids are older.


This arch is called-Sand Arch. It's a mini hike which was perfect since it was the last arch we went on Saturday. You walk into a sandy, shady spot and there is the arch. It was beautiful and so much fun for the kids. We all left with buckets full of sand in our shoes.

Our Easter

A week isn't' too late to blog about Easter right? Jaxson and I had a blast this Easter. Sadly Brett had to work so he missed a lot of the fun activities. We did get to do things together in the evenings. My brother Greg had his 3 kids in Vernal Wednesday night till Monday afternoon. My brother Dave was going to take his 4 kids to a baseball tournament Easter weekend but it got canceled so everyone was here to party. It was a fun filled Easter weekend from Wednesday night till Monday afternoon for us. We did things together from morning till it was time to go to bed. We loved all of it even with the freezing weather and horrible wind. Tuesday we found ourselves feeling lonely.

THURSDAY: We had a nice dinner at my parents house before my parents did their annual Grandpa and Grandma Easter Hunt. Every year each kid gets 12 eggs to find (they have their initial and a number from 1-12) they then trade it in for fancy prices. This year was fun because Jaxson was into finding his eggs to put in his basketball basket that Grandma and Grandpa gave him and he also liked getting and playing with his prizes this year.

FRIDAY:

We dyed Easter eggs at Grandpa and Grandma's so that we could do an Easter hunt at our picnic. Jaxson thought it was awesome dropping an eggs in colored water and "checking" it with his spoon. Growing up we always went on an Olsen family Easter Picnic at the Sandunes. I have lots of great Easter memories up there. I love that now I get to take my son and he gets to create his own Easter picnic memories.

Kole introduced Jaxson to the hills and how you climb them. Once Jaxson started he didn't want to stop.

Before we left we flew kites.

SATURDAY:

We went to the Naples Park Egg hunt. It was freezing but we scored some yummy candy. When Kole got to my parents house he dumped his candy to look at it and of coarse Jaxson had to do the same. The Easter Bunny was at the park and gave Kole and Jaxson a high 5 before the race started that was a big highlight of the hunt.

Saturday we hung out, had lunch at our house since my parents didn't have power, did Singstar with the kids, made homemade soups and donuts (lots of work but so unbelievably good) and when we came home that night the Easter Bunny had made his visit to Jaxson.

The Easter Bunny hid Jaxson's basket this year in his toy drawer. Of coarse the sport candies were the first things to take his eye.

The Easter Bunny left sport eggs this year for Jaxson to find. He loved running all around the living room finding basketball, football, baseball and soccer eggs.

March 16th Jaxson learned to count to 10 all by himself in one day it came so easily to him it blew my mind. This last week he started counting to 12. Wow! Hopefully counting and numbers will always comes easy to him that would be a huge blessing for him and me when it comes to counting and figuring that phe. =) After finding his Easter eggs from the Easter Bunny he had to count them.

SUNDAY: I didn't take any pictures Sunday but Jaxson and I watched LDS conference and then we had Easter dinner at my parents and went down to Brett's parents house later that night. Jaxson was spoiled and received lots of wonderful outside toys to play with at the Erickson's and more candy.

MONDAY: We took all the kids to the new Naples Park. We wanted to let them play for a while, have a picnic and then ride bikes to 7-11 for Slurpee's if only the weather would have went along with the plan. We ended up back at my mom's after almost an hour for our picnic. I then did a couple of Easter games with the kids. Jaxson and Kole got matching t-shirts at Christmas. On Monday they were finally able to wear them at the same time they were adorable "twinners". Who needs a little brother to match clothes with when you can do it with your cousin.=)