Erickson's

9 Years

2012-01-10T14:01:00.001-08:00

Brett and I celebrated our 9 year anniversary on January 3rd! Brett send me my anniversary roses--9 roses for 9 years. Love that tradition and every year it just gets better and better. =) We had a fantastic anniversary and can't wait to celebrate more.

Sunbeams

2012-01-10T13:52:00.000-08:00

My Little man is going to turn 4 in 2012 so when the first Sunday of January came he was in Sunbeams. He is ready for the change and to be in a more structured class setting. I also felt excited about this change because my mom is his primary teacher. I feel so blessed that he gets to have my mom as his primary teacher. My mom is Mrs. Primary. He loves the primary songs and I know he'll love having more singing time on Sunday. Since I'm in the primary presidency I get to see him and watch him in a class setting and that's fun too. I just hope he'll understand when I teach monthly Sharing Time that I can only get away with picking him once.=)

A Sunbeam A Sunbeam Jesus wants me for a Sunbeam!

New Years Eve

2012-01-10T13:31:00.000-08:00

Every year my brother David and Danielle put on a New Years Eve party at their home. We start with a pot luck dinner and then play games till it's almost midnight all the while eating and eating delicious treats. We watch the ball drop and toast in the New Year with Cherry 7-up with a cherry in the cup. The guys then shot in the New Year. If you ask me it's a fantastic night dinner, games and treats till you can't eat anymore all the while hanging out with a great group of people! Jaxson was in heaven to be at my brother's house all night to play this hockey game they got for Christmas. Thankfully my brother Greg was a great sport and played with Jaxson as did Maddie and Kale all through the night. Brett, McKayla and Nancy doing a little Just Dance My oldest brother David and me. I had to watch myself every time I would get up or look away my brother would try to add domino's to my stack.Brett, Jaxson and Dylan shooting in a New Year! Jaxson was so cute with his toy gun and wanted to be part of the guys in shooting. It's fun to pass down traditions with my son that I've seen since I was a little girl.

Christmas

2012-01-02T15:37:00.001-08:00

Our Christmas was packed full with doing Christmas in our own home that morning, going to church and then spending time with both our families before the night was over. I didn't take a ton of pictures during the day but enough to share of our Christmas 2011. Jaxson got up around 7:40am. He was so excited to go into the living room and see if Santa had come during the night. He loved all his presents and halfway into opened them asked if we would take him to the North Pole so he could tell Santa thank you. It was so cute. Jaxson was so shocked and thrilled that Santa had remember all the things he had said through the holiday that he would like and brought them to him.Jaxson with his wrestling men he asked Santa for when he sat on his lap.

At my parents house Lexie and Jaxson tried out Grandma and Grandpa's new bean bags and Wii games.

All the Erickson cousin's enjoying Jaxson's new Marble Run he got from Grandma and Grandpa Erickson

Jayden, Jaxson and Kylen

The boys enjoying a pickle break on Christmas.

Christmas Eve

2012-01-02T15:06:00.001-08:00

Christmas Eve was so wonderful in our home. Jaxson was dying to open his presents under the tree and Brett and I figured why not since Christmas would be filled with lots of gifts. In the morning we let him open up Just Dance 3 and had a great morning of dancing. We are huge Just Dance fans at our home. In the afternoon we went to my grandma's and let Jaxson open up the game my grandma had gotten Jaxson. He loved this old classic fighting game. In the evening Jax opened up his Christmas Eve PJ's.

Christmas Eve Dinner and Night at my parents house. Love that Jaxson gets to spend time with his favorite people---his cousins!

Jaxson came into the family room riding Braden with my grandpa's cowboy hat. Soon Kole appeared with his funky hat. We then were entertained with Braden and Dylan being bulls and giving Kole and Jaxson bunking rides and chasing them.

My parents always put together a game for us to play on Christmas Eve. This year we were in 4 teams and did 16 Minute to Win it games. If you won your round you got to pick a prize from the prize table if you won a second time you got to pick from the money box that had different amount of bills. If you did you're very best the whole night and cheered your team on you qualified to have a chance to win the surprised Grand Prize. It was such a fun night! The annual firetruck ride. We get spoiled with a firetruck ride so we can look for Santa and sing Christmas songs. The perfect ending to a special family night.

Uncle Greg and Jaxson

Gracie and Me

Jaxson picked Sugar Cookies to leave for Santa. The day before Christmas Eve we made sugar cookies together. Jaxson was a huge help with cutting out the cookies, put them on the pan, listening for the timer and then getting the sprinkles on them after I iced them. Jaxson was right Santa LOVED his homemade Sugar Cookies he found out our house that night!

My New Love

2011-12-21T10:52:00.000-08:00

Meet my new LOVE-Jacob

My sweet precious nephew!

Love holding him, cuddling him and looking at him!
Love being his Auntie!

November

2011-12-21T09:53:00.000-08:00

One Sunday Jaxson wanted to play camping and Brett set up this tent and then promised Jaxson that the following Friday they would "camp out", what a dad! So they had a mini camping trip in our spare bedroom in November.
Jaxson loves playing with his buddy Kylen Brett introduced Jaxson to a football PS3 game in Nov. Jaxson loves playing the game with his dad and as soon as Brett gets home from work he begs Brett to play the football game.

This year we were with Brett's family for Thanksgiving. We had a wonderful Thanksgiving with lots of yummy food.

Jayden and Jaxson doing a little Thanksgiving cooking

Kylen, Jayden,Jaxson, Kaysia and Kemery The kid table Thanksgiving weekend we always go up and get our Christmas tree. There was a little bit of snow and it wasn't that cold so it was a perfect day to get a tree.
Eric and Elizabeth brought this sled and Jaxson and Brianna loved it. Brett pulled them around to find our tree and then they started sledding in it by themselves. They were so fun to watch. A couple of times they went down the hill super fast and then hit into a tree stub and just laughed and laughed wish I could have recorded them.

We enjoyed Holiday Days. I thought this swing ride was awesome. Jaxson loves to swing.We had lots of fun times with Brianna and Abbie. Love these girls!

October

2011-11-22T13:39:00.000-08:00

I better hurry and post Oct before it's time to post November.

Gingerbread Cookies: Every October my mom invites all the grandkids over to decorate gingerbread cookies. We had lots of yummy cookies to eat in our home thanks to Jaxson and grandma.

DINOSAURS: We were able to go to the newly opened Dinosaur quarry and the museum in Oct. Brianna and Abbie were great friends to invite us to come along with their family.

CORN MAZE: Brett and Jaxson joined his family to go have some fun at the corn maze. Such a fun Fall activity. I was sad I was out of town when they went but there is next year. Jaxson told me all about it and sounded like he had the very best time.

COOK FOR LOVE: In October I was able to go to a PKU Cook For Love workshop in SLC. Now this workshop wasn't just any kind of workshop at least not to me. It was a dream come true right up there with meeting Oprah.=) Going to it I felt the excitement of my birthday, Christmas and my anniversary all wrapped into one. It was a BIG deal to me.

My PKU Super Hero--Brenda!

Her name is Brenda I feel that she is an earthly ANGEL! She has 2 children one with PKU. She lives in NY and co fonded a PKU food website that has changed my world. It has allowed me to cook delicious breads, main dishes, side dishes and desserts for my family. Brenda has given me back the hope that we can all sit down at the dinner table and eat the same things and not just anything but absolutely delicious food. I now have lots of yummy food options for Jaxson and for us not to mention the peace of mind that she has brought into my life.

I felt honored and knew it was a sweet blessing from God that I who adore her and her fabulous recipes was able to spend hours with her and talk to her and gain knowledge. It was for sure a highlight in my year. She only commits to 2 or 3 a year she told us and the fact that Utah was the one she did say yes to I'd say God was smiling down on me for sure

I could go on and on about this girl, Stephanie. She is one of the most amazing people I have had the chance to meet through PKU. No question in my mind I was meant to meet her. I'm thankful for her friendship and all the support, help and love she gives me and my family. She is really one of the great ones and I'm blessed to call her my friend.

Halloween Party with all (well almost all) of Jaxson's cousins. We invited everyone over and had a total of 15 kids in our home for a Halloween party. We played Halloween games and had a Halloween witches brew float. It was fun to spend time and put a party together for my nieces and nephews.

2011 Halloween

2011-11-14T15:30:00.000-08:00

The night before Halloween we carved pumpkins at our home. We all pitched in and cleaned the guts and goo out of our 6 pumpkins. Jaxson really enjoyed cleaning out the goo.

Jaxson loved how the pumpkins smelt. He keep putting his head inside it and taking deep breaths and talking about how good the pumpkins smelt. It was so funny.

Hard at work on the pumpkins

Jaxson wanted a silly pumpkin this year on his pumpkin.

He picked that on his own about a week before we carved them. Our pumpkins all finished

This year for Halloween Jaxson chose to be a baseball catcher. Uncle Dave let us borrow one of his catcher bags with all the gear. We borrowed it a week prior to Halloween Jaxson would have me get all the equipment on all day long he loved it. All the equipment on was really hard for him to walk a lot in so come Halloween we decided that he would just wear the mask and of coarse the black things under the eyes cause Uncle Dave had told him that is what catchers wear so it was a must. It felt like I was getting to see a little look into our future. I'm sure I'll see this look on Jaxson again in the future when he's old enough to play ball.

Halloween was a full day. We started at 2pm and ended around 9:30. We went to family and luckily were able to see everyone but Jayden in their costume. We then went to our ward Train or Treat at the Mott's and rode the train and played with the ward kids for about an hour. Then we went to my parents house and ate dinner. After dinner we went trick or treating around our neighborhood block. Then up to Brett's cousin Brooke's Halloween party. It was a full night but lots of fun!

Payton, RyLee and Jaxson

Jaxson, Brianna and Abbie

Jaxson, Kemery, Kylen and Kaysia

Carston, Halle and Jaxson

We took Jaxson Trick or Treating just as I grew up doing Treak or Treating around the same neighborhood--special special. He loved riding in the the wagon from house to house. Our neighborhood was so awesome they all had thought of him and picked up something they could give Jax for Halloween. Some had gotten a special treat just for him and some had picked candy to hand out that was healthy for Jaxson to eat all without calling and asking me they just had watched what Jaxson had eaten in the past and knew what would work. So thoughtful I had to fight back the tears. LOVE where we live and all the thoughtful neighbors that we have it made my Halloween this year and I know it was a perfect night for Jaxson.

September

2011-10-05T13:18:00.001-07:00

Labor Day Weekend

For Labor Day Weekend my parents did a dinner at their house on Sunday and then that night we had all the kids over for a dance party. Brett got me a new Just Dance game it's a summer version with lots of great dance songs. We were super into it and even had to move the couches so we could get our groove on. On Monday we went to Remember the Mane. I thought I had more pictures of our day but I can't find them. We had lunch, the kids played on the playground and then we walked down to the water. Well it didn't take long till everyone was in the water. It was so warm it was perfect.

Labor Day picnic
One night while watching Brett shave Jaxson wanted to try it out too.

Jaxson's favorite toy by far in September. We had to go to the dollar store one day and Jaxson spotted these things now most people would see this as knight attire not my son he instantly thought he had found a catcher equipment just his size. Got to love my little baseball nut! He wears it daily and talks and shows me how he is a catcher.
In September Jaxson starting singing I Hope They Call Me On a Mission, he sounded so cute. So I dug out Brett's missionary tags since I did singing time at church 3 times after that and would let the kids wear Brett's old missionary tags. One Sunday Jaxson didn't want to take them off and I had to get a picture of him and Brett both wearing Elder Erickson tags.

CIRCUS
We went to the circus out in Salt Lake with Nikki, Joey and Jayden. We bought our tickets in Aug and I could hardy wait for the 24th of Sept to take Jaxson and watch him and see his reaction to the circus. It was so entertaining from start to finish. We all loved it and have talked and talked about it since we have gotten home. Jaxson says he's favorite part was the 12 tigers

HOMECOMING

I got asked by my drill coach, Robin if I would dance in the homecoming game and since I have a very special place in my heart for Robin of coarse I said yes. She wanted the former U'ettes to dance with alumni U'ettes. I missed the first 2 hour practice so I had to learn the dance the night before in 20 minutes. It was a lot of fun dancing and preforming again. There were U'ettes from the 70's, 80's, 90's and 2000's. My family showed up and cheered me on and my sweet husband even had a poster made for Jaxson to hold to cheer me on.

August

2011-09-02T11:05:00.000-07:00

For me August was the best month this summer. It was full of fun times. Here are some photos that captured our Aug 2011.

Fun times with the cousins. I LOVE living close to family we've had the best summer

Jaxson got to go to his 1st Grandma and Grandpa sleepover. They went swimming, had a pizza party, played night games, watched a movie and sleep in my parents new addition to their home. Jaxson was in heaven. Such a fun summer tradition.

I put together an Olsen cousin summer water playdate. I had 7 games and 1 craft. Elizabeth volunteered her yard since they have grass. After our games we did their slip n' slide. I'm grateful we live by family and Jaxson gets to play with his cousins and have so many great times and memories with them.

Water Balloon Relay-they had to pair up and then put a water balloon in between their backs and get to the end of the grass while trying not to pop the balloon and be the first one.

Water Freeze Tag

Dodge Ball with our sponge bombs we made

Over and Under Game

We did one last Erickson cousin summer playdate before summer ended. Braden and Dylan wanted to be apart of the fun too. We made 2 types of Kool Aid playdough, did magical milk, fizzy fun, water game and of coarse a snack. It's always fun to get all the Erickson kids together they are pretty close in age.
Water Relay Sponge Bomb Game-They had to dip their sponges in a bucket of water, run back to their jar and fill it up with water.

Our friends, Erin and Josh hosted a family night up at their family cabin. It was a blast. The kids loved "shooting" things, exploring, tossing rocks in the water and going for rides. It was one of those nights that the time just flew and you wished you could just make it slow down or stop because you didn't want it to be over.

All the guys took turns taking the kids for rides the kids couldn't get enough

My cousin James got married in Aug in the Draper Temple it was fantastic. We were able to go to their wedding, their luncheon and then that night their reception and luau. It was amazing and such a fun family day. It wouldn't be a luau without the Haka and believe it or not Brett somewhat knows the Huka so he went up and danced with the men that night. Talk about entertainment.
I started doing preschool with Jaxson. It's so much fun he gets so excited when I tell him it's time for school and I of coarse loving teaching him so it's a win win. We are trying to do it 3 days a week for 2 hours. We do Opening/Calendar time, Math, Language/letter/writing,sensory tube, practical life skills, story time, fine motor and then center/choosing time. The above picture was our first day of preschool growing up I always had my picture taken on the first day of school in front of our fridge so I had to carry on the tradition and the picture below was during Opening/Calendar time. I have to restrain myself from taking pictures all the time while we are doing school because it's distracting but plan on taking some from time to time.

We've had lots of fun times with Brianna and Abbie this summer. Here they are doing Magical Milk. You put milk in some kind of container, add food coloring then drop dish soap and watch the neat swirling effect it does with the milk it's magical!On the 26th I turned 29. I love my birthdays and this year was the BEST. I had tons of calls, texts and visits. My mom and and dad took me to lunch. I had a much needed pedicure. Got to go on a dinner and movie date with my sweet heart and got tons of great gifts. I felt very loved!
On the last night of Aug we were getting ready for bed and Jaxson asked Brett where he had put his shoes he had been wearing after seeing where they were he then asked if his shoes could be by his daddy's shoes. Brett told him yes and so he ran to his room, got his shoes out of his shoe bucket and sat them down by Brett's. When I went to bed and looked at those shoes side by side I just had to get a picture. It's moments like these that I know I'll think back on and treasure and feel they went all too fast.

Aug. Projects

2011-09-01T10:16:00.000-07:00

In August I got the bug for "making and creating" I thought I'd post some of my projects just so I have a record of them somewhere. Sponge Bombs I made a second set I liked a little bit better with colorful rags tied into the sponges but I didn't take a picture of them. These have been fun to use with our Aug water play and a bit hit at the Splash Park.I made this fish math game for Jaxson and Brianna's 5th birthday. Each fish has different amount of embellishments. So Jaxson can catch a fish, count what number it is, match that fish to the numeral and practice writing that number. Love how many educational activities this cute game lends itself too. It could also be used to work on or reinforce colors. We got invited to a cabin and I volunteered to do a smore bar. We had 4 different kinds of marshmallows, 3 different types of crackers and 6 different kinds of chocolate. It was smore heaven!I made Oreo apple pops to wish my nieces and nephews good luck with school.

July

2011-08-04T08:17:00.000-07:00

Here's a little bit of our JulyAfter the 4th of July parade we went to Harper's Corner for a picnic and hike. It was so beautiful and the kids did really well walking themselves on the hike.

Jaxson took swimming lessons. His teachers were super nice and there were only 2 other boys in his class so they got lots of one on one time. Jaxson did super well. He loves to jump into the water and "swim" under the water all by himself. He was the only boy in his class that would fully go under the water he loves the water!

We were able to go the Drive Inn in July. We took Jaxson to Cars 2. Jaxson loved the Drive Inn and talked about it for many days afterwards. We had a mattress with sheets, blankets and pillows and tons of treat it was awesome. Of coarse Jaxson and I were sound asleep after Cars Brett made it through the second show. Brett ended up driving Jaxson and I home while sleeping in the back of the truck. When we got home Brett and Jaxson sleep all night in the back of the truck--fun memories!

We love our playdates with all our cousins and friends! This day RyLee, Jaxson and Payton found a huge puddle that came up to Payton's waist at the Naples School and had a blast playing in the water. I wish I would have taken my camera. When we got back to our house it was time for a popsicle and we need to dry off.

We went to the lake with Uncle Greg's family and my mom and dad. The water was so warm it was a perfect lake day. My favorite part was playing tag with all the kids in the shallow water and jumping off a tree into the lake with Lexie. Such a super fun day!

We were able to go our county fair in July The fair was once again great. We went to the main event on Friday. Jaxson and Kylen went through the Little Red Barn and of coarse had a blast doing everything.

Kylen and Jaxson did a few crafts together like decorating a hat. I thought they had some fun things for the kids this year. We also went through the exhibits, got shaved ice and watching Halle and Carston dance.

Jaxson and Little Miss Kaysia! Check out that crown my niece is Little Miss isn't she adorable. It was so exciting to watch her preform at Miss Uintah County she did amazing and then to see her win a crown it couldn't have happened to a sweet girl. I'm just hoping she'll let me wear her crown sometime.=)

June

2011-07-13T21:07:00.000-07:00

We have had the very best summer. It has been so busy and full not with any big thing but with just every day fun stuff. I haven't been the best picture taker but not because I haven't had anything to take pictures of. Our summer has been packed full with great family times, many play dates and lots of bike rides. Jaxson is madly in love with riding his bike and does such a fantastic job at riding. I've enjoyed having him ride next to me vrs being in the baby bike carrier behind my bike although there are those few moments where I look at him riding so fast on his own and can't believe how fast the time has went. His 2 favorite places to ride his bike is in front of our house down the side walk into our garage I think he likes the little slope and picking up speed and also riding by himself to Grandma's. That was a huge step for me in letting him ride by himself as I watch by my door till he gets there but he loves being independent and I've got to support that even if it kills me sometimes.

Kole
One of the best things about summer is that Lexie, Gracie and Kole get to share 9 weeks of summer with us and this summer we are all in Vernal having a blast. Jaxson adores Kole and is always so excited when he rides down on his bike to play or they get to play together at Grandma's. I love watching them play and become such great friends.
This day I built a hut for them to play in. It was their tent and they were camping and would go hunting for bears around our house. Super cute!This picture was not posed at all. They were playing and were so quit while I was in my bedroom folding clothes. I came out to see them doing this, so precious.

Itty Bitty Ball
We did another Itty Bitty Ball since the last session was such a hit with Jaxson. This time Jaxson's cousin's Kole and Brianna were able to do it with us and that was really fun. Jaxson loved every week. This session Jaxson was very into what "team" he was on and what his "team" scored and if they "won" the other "team" it was very funny. T-Ball was the best specially on the last day with Jaxson, Kole and Brianna were actually on a team together and got to play baseball. They were running all around those bases scoring. Jaxson was a pro hitting the ball on his own and over all the kids and adults playing on the other team.
Kole, Brianna and Jaxson with their Itty Bitty Ball t-shirts and certificates

Father's Day

We were able to spend time with my dad and Brett's dad on this special day. Jaxson and I made Brett's favorite breakfast and surprised him with some gifts: a new swimming suit,

a basket of goodies with tokens and new shoes to match Jax.Brett got Jaxson his shoes a while ago and keep telling me and Jax how he would like a pair. Brett loves shoes and so when Father's Day rolled around Jaxson thought it was time to get dad some cool shoes like his that would of coarse make daddy run fast like him.

May

2011-07-13T20:25:00.001-07:00

Kemery
The best part of May my new baby niece, Kemery arrived on May 30. She is so precious and it's so sweet to have a new baby in the family.

Brett and I were at the hospital when big sister Kaysia and big brother Kylen meet their new baby sister for the first time. It was special to share that moment with them. I just love this picture.

We got to have Kaysia and Kylen stay a night with us when their parents and baby sister were in the hospital. We had the best time and Jaxson loved having his first sleepover at our new home with Kaysia and Klyen.We made homemade pizza's for dinner and each got to roll out are own pizza and pick are own toppingsAfter playing at two parks, eating ice cream cones, have a big bubble bath we made a big bed in the living room and settled down with treats and a movie.
These two boys are so fun to have together. They found this great place to play in the morning before it was time for us to go to the Splash Park.

Music Recital

We started something different in March Singing Class. It added a little variety to Jaxson's very sport world. Jaxson went to singing class every Tuesday. In May they had a recital and it was so special and cute to see him up on the stage singing. I loved when he was done and came down to all of his family and he wanted to come right to his mommy to get my loven' for doing such a fantastic job it just melted my heart.

Jaxson got the award for Best Energy and some ice cream cone bubbles from his teacher Mrs. Kaysie. They used bubbles like these in class to work on their breath and they were a huge hit.
Each child got to pick a solo to do at the recital. Jaxson picked, "If You're Happy and You Know It" Singing with the group. Jaxson loved doing the song, "Jack Be Nibble" I don't know if it was because he thought they were singing Jax be nibble and thought it was a song about him or if it was because they got to take turns jumping over a stick either way it was his favorite.

Grandma Moore's 90th

Brett's Grandma Moore turned 90 in May. Brett's family threw a very nice party for her in honor of her 90th birthday. All of Grandma Moore's family was able to make it to her birthday party I thought that was so thoughtful and special for all of her kids, grandkids and great grandkids to be in the same room for a few hours.

RyLee, Jaxson and Kylen enjoying a cold Slurpee the room heated up with all the people in it and a Slurpee was just the right treat.

I Did It

2011-05-20T17:20:00.000-07:00

I officially ran a 5k race! I never thought I would add that to my "bucket list" and then cross it off. I remember saying in May 2010 to Brett's Aunt Delsi that I had no plans to ever run a race fast forward to almost an exact year later and there I was running my first 5k race. Never say never right! I actually enjoyed the race. It was a lot in the making but when it came time to run it I was so prepared and conditioned it was perfect. When I committed to the goal of running this 5k I also made the personal goal of doing it 30 minutes or less so that I was running 10 minutes miles. I met my goal at 29:44. Daisy, me and Erin--my running gals!

Thanks to Daisy I did this she is the one that introduced this idea to me in January, thanks Daisy. We also ran every Saturday since the last week of March so thanks to her I was prepared for a 5k outside which is a LOT different then running on a treadmill with great shocks. It was a lot of fun running with my gals!

My Biggest Cheerleader! Brett and Jaxson were between mile 2 and 2.5 and Jaxson was cheering me on as I passed it was the best and gave me lots of energy to finish. He was so cute with other runners as they finished telling them, "good job". Love my Jaxson!

I had great support for my race. Brett, Jaxson and my parents came. It was awesome to have my loved ones there to see me race and finish.

Easter 2011

2011-05-19T10:39:00.000-07:00

We had such a nice Easter this year. We had 3 days of fun with family! Friday Brett's Aunt Sandra invited us to her house to dye Easter Eggs and have lunch. Jaxson loved coloring eggs and did them all on his own this year. He had lunch with Payton and listening to those 2 boys talk to each other was so entertaining. They had a great conversation about foods they like and don't like. It was such a great day for the kids to play outside and Jaxson and Kylen went to work on Aunt Sandra's rocks. . Saturday: We went to Split Mountain with my family for our Easter Picnic and Grandma and Grandpa Egg Hunt. We ate a yummy lunch, went 4 wheeling and did our egg hunt. It was tons of fun minus the one time I thought the 4 wheeler was going to tip over. Jaxson, Brianna and Abbie ready to go find their 12 eggs. My mom and dad had the coolest prizes for Jaxson to trade in his eggs for. He played with all the fun stuff and ate all the goodies for the rest of the day.

Sunday: The Easter Bunny hopped this way and found us! He hid the 12 eggs Jaxson had colored on Friday in our living room, hid Jaxson's Easter basket and prizes in Jaxson's bathtub and even left me some perfume. Jaxson was so much fun this year. He was so excited to see if the bunny had come in the morning and he found all the eggs, his basket and prizes all by himself. He talked all day about how sneaky the bunny was to come to his home. It was super cute to see how magical the Easter Bunny was to him this year. I loved it.

Jaxson made us laugh because when he would find an egg and go put it in the carton it had to go back in the spot that had the same color. The day before Jaxson found a blue bat and was hoping the Easter Bunny would bring it. That great Easter Bunny didn't care that we already have plenty of bats and brought it to Jaxson. He also gave him a cool new green scooter that Jaxson played on for the rest of the day with lots of other goodies and prizes in his basket!

After church we went to Brett's mom and dad's for a great Easter Evening with his whole family. As always there was great food and the kids had a blast playing together.

2011-05-01T17:54:00.000-07:00

We're HOME!

On April 8 we stayed our first night in our new home. We closed our loan on April 15 after much drama. I love our new home. I have once again learned the lesson that there is a time and season for everything and that God is very aware of us down to the details and has greater plans for us then we can dream up for ourselves. The first few days I felt like a little girl playing house and was just giddy about our home. It's perfect for us. I could type many things about our new home that I love like how I love the floor plan, the colors, our views, the bay window, our fans, the location, the pantry in the kitchen, the microwave above the oven, our jetted tub, the appliance closet, the garbage disposal, the nook between our rooms, all of Brett's finish work, the garage, the extra refrigerator but I think I'll just share the top 3 things I just LOVE and CHERISH about our new home.

#1-My KITCHEN! It's fantastic. I love how open it, the bar to prep and cook my dishes without it ever feeling like I'm running out of room, my cabinets, my fancy appliances specially my stove it's amazing! I spend a lot of time cooking in the kitchen so it's wonderful to have a space that I just love to be. I feel so spoiled to have such a wonderful kitchen but I'm using it to the fullest and loving it!

#2-I love how much light comes into our home. From the moment the sun comes up till the moment it goes down it's so light. I love that. For me having that sun come in just feels my soul with JOY and for such a long period of the day is amazing. There have been many nights that we don't turn on a light till 8ish. I really enjoy and appreciate all the light that fills our home so naturally.

#3- I love the feeling in our home. The first time Brett and I stepped into this home when it was just barely framed I could sense that this spot had a great feel to it and that we would have many wonderful happy memories here. So far that's very very true. I'm grateful for all the places we've been able to live in and can see how they at that time were perfect for us but also how they made our first new home such a fantastic place and a dream come true.

Golf Clubs

2011-05-01T17:43:00.000-07:00

While out in SLC Brett got Jaxson some actual golf clubs talk about super cute they are so tiny. Jaxson was in love at first sight. He's such a sport fanatic. That night was super adorable watching Brett talk to Jaxson about golf, the club names and how to put on the golf bag. Brett's a huge fan of golf so it was special to see a father share one of his loves with his son and have his son love it all at the same time. It was perfect timming because Jaxson had one more day left of Iitty Bitty Ball Clinic where they were doing golf, he looked very professional with his official set of clubs. Brett, Jaxson and Uncle Greg went golfing at the golf coarse and Jaxson had a blast. Just a few weeks ago Brett said after dinner to Jaxson on a Friday night, "what would you like to do Jaxson" Jaxson without skipping a beat said, "I think I'd like to go hit on the greens."

Brett's Birthday

2011-05-01T17:25:00.000-07:00

On March 22 Brett turned 30. Crazy since the first birthday I celebrated with him was his 18th. Wow. His birthday came at a really stressful time for us with getting into our home. We were able to celebrate a little bit and take a tirp out to SLC to see Bon Jovi. We left Jaxson with my parents and went to SLC. It was hard for me to leave Jaxson for the night since this was the first time we left Jaxson but he had a blast with Grandma and Grandpa. We went out and had dinner at Brett's favorite restaurant, Famous Daves, checked into the Little America and walked to the concert. We were about there when Brett said to me did you take the tickets out of my back pocket, um no and WHAT! We back tracked and keep our eyes on the ground. We got back to the Little America's parking lot and found our tickets in the parking lot talk about a miracle! I told Brett he was very lucky because I would have hated to strangle him on his birthday.=) The concert was so AWESOME. Bon Jovi played from 8:30-10:50pm. So many classics and was in such great shape he amazed me with all his dancing around since he's almost 50. What an inspiration. The next day we went to all the guy places Brett wanted to shop. It was great to have some one on one time and take a small brake from the craziness of our new home. Still can't believe my main man is 30! At the Bon Jovi concet

Jaxson's 3rd Birthday

2011-02-28T14:17:00.000-08:00

Our Jaxson is now 3. He had his 3rd birthday on Sunday, Feb. 27. This birthday was so much fun because he was so excited about his birthday and turning 3. The night before I started a tradition that I had growing up with in my parent's home. While he was getting ready for bed I put all his wrapped gifts from Brett and I out in the living room. I keep my fingers crossed it would be okay to have them out the night before and it was. He was so happy to see them and told Brett and I over and over "thanks for my presents" and was totally fine with waiting till the morning to open them, he's an awesome kid. He woke up around 8 and was ready to open his gifts and start celebrating being 3.

Brett and I just got to sit back and watch the magic this birthday. He got a magnetic car puzzle, new playdough, Just Dance for Kids, Cars-toothbrush, tooth paste and bubble bath, birthday clothes, a flashlight that lights up and makes animal sounds, a toy motorcycle and one of his favorite gifts this year cars from the movie Cars. He had Lightening and The King but we gave him Chick and then 6 other car characters. It was very tuff to get him to stop playing and get ready for church. Luckily we had a few hours before we needed to go.

Jaxson's big gift this year was his first BIKE! He told us at the end of September or October that he wanted a bike for his birthday. I was so impressed he never asked for one right then or later on but that it was what he wanted for his birthday. We figured his birthday at the end of February would be better then Christmas in December and that was when he wanted it so a bike for his birthday is what we got him. We hid it by our front door for an extra surprise in the morning. He adores his new bike and rode it down to Grandpa and Grandma's like a pro. Crazy to me as his mom since I've biked him around for the last 3 years and now he's biking himself around. All day we ate Jaxson's favorite foods. For breakfast we had upside down apple pancakes with candles of coarse, for lunch spaghetti with breadsticks and honeydew and for dinner homemade fries, green beans, strawberries and grapes! All day he ate with his 3 cars or more beside him and on our family birthday plate-another tradition from my past! I love being able to share and do things that I loved and found memorable as a kid with my own son now.It took Jaxson and I some time to figure out what we were going to do for his 3rd birthday cake this year. He was just starting to like Cars when we decided on a Cars birthday cake and I started researching. He then become obsessed with Cars and I knew the cake would be perfect. It turned out fantastic and was so delicious and moist! Jaxson had a hard time with me telling him he could not race the 3 cars down the road on the cake and even told Heavenly Father about it during one of his prayers. I had to put all the cars on it just right before party because he had to have them all beside him most of the day. Happy Birthday to Jaxson! Jaxson did awesome blowing out all his candles this year. All of Jaxson's family came to sing and wish him Happy Birthday on his birthday!

Uncle Dave and family gave Jaxson this bucket that was full of balls and has it's own built in tee. It was a huge hit with Jaxson. Thankfully it was such a great warm day for Feb. we were able to go outside with it and do what he loves--play baseball!

We ended the party playing Jaxson's new Wii game Just Dance for Kids. Such cute songs on it for kids. Jaxson found a favorite already, If You're Happy and You Know It.

Happy 3rd Birthday Jaxson!

This year was such a fun, memorable and perfect birthday! It's a good thing they only come around once a year.=) I knew when they held Jaxson up to my face and our eyes locked that I was given a VERY special spirit from heaven. I'm so grateful I get to share in Jaxson's earthy experiences. I love him so much and feel honored that I get to call him my son and raise and take care of him.

Jaxson's 3rd Birthday Party

2011-02-28T13:43:00.001-08:00

For Jaxson's 3rd birthday we had a bouncing birthday party at the Rec. Center. We rented a bounce house with a slide, an obstacle coarse with a big slide and 2 party rooms. It was so much fun. The adults could go down too but only Brett and I went down a few times. Jaxson was so excited this year for his party and to have all his friends come. We had a total of 39 people come celebrate and play with Jaxson. The bounce house was a big hit with the little kids

Jaxson and Brianna having a fun time together
The big slide

Braden, Dylan and Halle were so awesome at helping everyone get up to the big slide and going through the obstacle coarse. It rocks to have older cousins! The kids enjoyed the bouncing and sliding for almost 2 hours.

They liked racing through the obstacle coarse or racing down the slide and some became very creative with how they slid down the big slide

Party treats!

I made cupcake cake bites, we had Jaxson's favorite fruits, popchips and drinks.

It was all very yummy!

Jaxson's cupcake pop cakes they turned out so adorable and tasted delicious!

Happy Birthday to Jaxson! The Party Room!

After all the bouncing, jumping and sliding everyone was ready for a drink and some yummy treats!Opening presents Jaxson tore into them all by himself this year

Jaxson got LOTS of great things! When we got home Jaxson had Brett help him get a present out one at at a time, he'd play with it for 15 minutes or so and then move on to another. He loved everything he got! Brett was so sweet to get those pesky gifts out and then play with him or teach him how to use his new gift for hours. We are going to have lots of great new toys to play with at our house. It was such a fun birthday party!

Valentines

2011-02-18T07:21:00.001-08:00

Our Valentines was LOVELY this year! Sunday night Jaxson and I got his Valentines ready for his cousins. I thought they turned out extra cute. Jaxson picked the orange Crush pop for the boys and the pink (strawberry) for his girl cousins. He loved telling me what cousin would get what color of pop and was a "big help" cutting the ribbon for his Valentines this year. We made Valentine sugar cookies and had heart shaped pancakes for dinner.Jaxson was very excited about his valentine from Brett and I. For the last 3 years we have given him a Valentines shirt, game and treat. Jaxson LOVES playing games and is very into the movie Cars so the underwear was a big hit and he has turned into a big Root Beer fanatic.It was then time to get our Valentine treat plates ready. We gave away homemade Oreo Chocolate balls and some of our heart sugar cookies. We made Valentine delivers to all of Jaxson's aunts, uncles, cousins and grandparents to wish them Happy Valentines. Jaxson LOVED taking Valentines to all his favorite people but was a little bummed that we weren't staying and playing at each of their homes. After our delivering our Valentines it was time to go swimming. Jaxson had been asking me since we went swimming in Jan. if I would take him again and I thought it would make a great Valentine date for the two of us during the day. Our friends that we do playdates with came too it was lots of fun swimming with Daisy, Becca, Dalli and Erin. Jaxson was very into "swimming" he would put his head under the water a lot I think he's ready for swimming lessons this Spring and also LOVED the dino slide. After swimming Grandma came by with her and grandpa's valentine for all of us. She always puts our valentine at the door and then rings the bell and hides. Jaxson LOVED finding her outside. They spoiled us with lots of treats that are our family's favorites, a sticky ball and mitts, a Cars color wonder book and a gift certificate for Brett and I to Don Pedros with babysitting for a date night--Yippee!. My mom and I got a kick out of Jaxson because the Valentines basket she brought over had tons of yummy candy that we all love but Jaxson was so excited about the 3 red apples she gave us. That's my fruit LOVING child!After Grandma left Jaxson and I got our Valentines dinner ready. I think our evening was my favorite part about Valentines it was just a special night and it was with my boys. We did homemade heart shaped pizza, breadsticks, cabbage and strawberries. I dipped a few strawberries in chocolate and vanilla they were yummy. We decorated our table all Valentines and then I put a bunch of tea light candles all around our kitchen. We ate dinner and then I had bought one of those Valentine conversational cards and we asked each others questions. Jaxson loved when dinner was over and he got to blow out all the candles around the kitchen.

We then had FHE and of coarse the songs and lesson had to be on love. Brett and I hide hearts around our living room and then Jaxson got to find them. The hearts had writting on them that told good or bad choices (like you share your toys or mom tells you to clean up and you said no) and Jaxson had to figure out if it was a good or bad choice. If it was a good choice he put it by a picture of a home because good choices fill our home with LOVE. There was also hearts that had us tell each other what we LOVE about one another. After our lesson we played Jaxson's new game and then ended the night with a Valentines treat-Valentine sugar cookies and Valentines fruit pizza.

I also have to add that this year for Valentines Brett was very sweet. He made me a CD of music that I'm in LOVE with right now like Train's Merry Me song and had it sitting on our desk as a Valentines surprise for me. When he got home from work he gave me my Valentines card and some new sheets the color that I told him a week or so ago that I want to incorporate in our bedroom. Such a thoughtful guy!

PKU Valentines Party

2011-02-13T20:43:00.000-08:00

This Saturday we went to SLC for a PKU Valentines Party. We left early so that we could go to lots of places before the party at 2pm. My parents went with Jaxson and I and were such a great help. Our first stop was the oulets to do some shopping. We then headed into SLC. After a stop at Whole Foods we went and visited my cousin's wife, Amy who is pregnant with twins and is on bed rest at a hospital in SLC. Wow my heart goes out to her and what she is going through with her babies who are due in April. She was life flighted out to SLC right after Christmas. Our next stop was lunch and then to the party!

The party was in the lounge at the Huntsman Center on the University of Utah campus. I told Jaxosn at 7:15am that we were going to a basketball game and all day he talked about it and asked and asked if it was time for the game. It was great to see and talk with other families with children with PKU. We laughed a lot about our lives with PKU that only a family with a PKUer could truly understand, shared info and had a great time. Sweet Grandma took Jaxson on an adventure to find a basketball. I didn't pack Jaxson's ball for the trip and all day long we heard about how he didn't have his ball. When we got to the game my mom thought she would be able to find one there but had to do a big hike with Jaxson around the campus to the bookstore to find one. After the party we went and watched the women's Utah vrs. BYU basketball game. Jaxson lasted longer then I thought he would without being able to shoot hoops and having to just watch. He keep asking me and telling me that it was his turn to go shoot hoops. We left the game and stopped in Park City for some yummy Cold Stone! One of my favorite places. It's not a fantastic trip unless you get to go to Cold Stone. Then we came home it was a packed full day.

Jaxson practicing his shot.

The ball was a big hit with some of the kids that came to the party.

Telling the clown that he wanted a green puppy.

Our January

2011-02-02T12:49:00.000-08:00

Our January was good. We always get to start the new year off on a great note--our anniversary. This year was #8 for us. Brett started a tradition I just love when we had our first anniversary with giving me the number of roses that we have been married for it's so sweet. My 8 red roses were so beautiful this year and made our house smell heavenly. Brett surprised me with a wii and the Just Dance 2 game. Jaxson and I are very addicted to that game. We play nightly and Jaxson is amazing with the "robot dance"--his all time favorite. We've had some great Just Dance family nights at our home. I gave Brett tickets to Bon Jovi in March. Brett's never gone to a concert and I figured Bon Jovi is one we can both go to and enjoy. Bon Jovi was on Oprah in January and it got me all excited for our concert it's going to be awesome he's got lots of great hits. I also every anniversary dig out our wedding album and DVD. Jaxson all month long has asked from time to time to watch the movie of when mom and dad got married. He makes me smile.

We've spent January doing just lots of fun things like: ice skating, sledding, swimming, playdates, family dinners with our parents, a temple date night and even a dinner/game night with our friends and their kids at our home. We've tried to make the best of this very cold trap inside month.=)

Brett has spent TONS of time working on our new home with doing all the shelves, doors, framing of the doors and baseboard. Jaxson and I didn't get to see him much this month. He would go to work at 6am come home eat dinner with us for 20 minutes or so and then head down to the house and work till 9:30 or even 11:30pm some nights. He's done an amazing job and I appreciate all the work he's done for our family. It's been a big sacrifice for all of us but I know we will LOVE it and it will be well worth it when it's all done. We are in high hopes of being moved in the first of March. Yippee!

Jaxson and I ended the month with being sick, no fun. We both have sinus infections. I feel back to normal now that I have some meds and Jaxson's getting there. I also reached my goal of running 5k's daily and the crazy thing is I'm starting to like running. I never thought that would happen. In January I also was a book worm thanks to my sister-in-law Danielle and read the whole Hunger Games serious. Such a crazy topic but I was so into them and was staying up way too late to read them they were good! I think Brett was thrilled when I finished reading them.=) I read through them in 3 weeks I just had to know who Katniss ended up with in the end and how it all ended.

I was horrible at taking pictures this month but here are a few shots I did take--

One Saturday while Brett was working at the house Jaxson went down to "help". He even took his own tools to help. He lasted a total of 30 minutes but it was super cute to sent Brett and Jaxson both down to "work" on the house together.

The Rest of 2010

2010-12-22T19:13:00.000-08:00

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

2010-07-14T13:47:00.000-07:00

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

2010-07-03T13:30:00.000-07:00

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

2010-06-23T21:05:00.000-07:00

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.

2010-06-10T14:41:00.000-07:00

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

2010-04-25T13:06:00.000-07:00

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

2010-04-11T14:06:00.000-07:00

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.=)

2010-03-31T12:58:00.000-07:00

Monday we did yard work and got our lawn looking awesome. Love our yard and the shade the trees provide on hot days but wow they sure give us lots of leaves and sticks to clean up. Jaxson was in heaven being outside for so long, having Grandpa's Honda and wagon at our home, the lawn mower (he's a big fan of a lawn mower) and then at the end to take the leaves and lawn clipping to the cow and have them surround us was just so much fun for our little guy. Here are some picture of our family yard day:

Enjoying the day!

Ready to get to work!

My boys hard at work!

We went to 7-11 for some gas and a treat for working so hard! Jaxson was so adorable with his Slurpee with almost every bite he told us, "um good".

Thursday night and Friday we got to see and play with Lexie, Gracie and Kole. It made my weekend to see them I haven't been able to see them since November and I've been missing them so much. They came up to our house Friday morning and Jaxson was still in bed and my ever so cute nephew Kole said, "I'm going to go in his room and say Cock-a-doodle-doo!" I've been laughing about that since he said it to me. Jaxson and Kole had such a fun time playing together and listing to them talk to each other was so darn adorable. Lexie, Gracie and myself jumped rope for over a hour and they taught me lots of new jump roping chants. Kole loves hitches and will "hitch"everything and anything. He "hitched" the little red wagon with grandma's jump ropes and then told Jaxson to get in and he'd give him a ride. Jaxson said, "okay" and got in and waiting for a while for his buddy Kole to give him a ride.

Jaxson in his Easter Sunday clothes! Jaxson is a big fan of ties and only wants to wear ties when it comes to getting ready for church. He knows daddy wear a tie, Grandpa wears a tie and he too needs a tie. It was my brother-in-law Jeff's birthday on Sunday and I made another candy bouquet. These are becoming one of my favorite "crafts" things to do. We stuffed a few dollar bills around the candy and told him to enjoy some relaxing Redbox movie nights on us. We had a nice dinner and evening with him and the Erickson family on Sunday.

So in March our ward's Primary Presidency was released and I was put in the new presidency. Being the big Birthday celebration/gift giver I am it was somewhat bothersome to me that they hadn't been giving out a small birthday gift to the kids on their birthdays. So I volunteered myself to finding and creating 54 birthday gifts. Below is what I came up with, with great help from the Internet of coarse.=)

The girls will get ones like this and the boys will get ones tied with hemp. On the back I've written our yearly theme: I know My Savior Lives and then Happy Birthday! Doing 54 took some time but I sure loved how they turned out. We also did a primary activity on Tuesday. We decorated Easter bags, had an Easter lesson, played Easter games and found Easter eggs. We had 42 of our 54 kids come. It was an amazing turnout and lots of fun! I also had Sharing time this last Sunday so it was a big busy Primary week for me.

Brett of coarse cut the wood for me and then even Jaxson was willing to help me get this project completely this week. He thought he was a big dude helping dad with the drill.

2010-03-25T13:54:00.000-07:00

Meet Moo he's one of Jaxson's favorite outside friends. Jaxson loves visiting Moo and feed him hay . I can't help but think that Moo must love Jaxson's hay visits as well. We have found out the last few days with warm weather that Jaxson can open the outside back screen door all by himself and make it down to Moo very quickly. I just hope my Grandpa and Grandma Olsen whose house and farm land we are living on get to "pick in" from time to time up in heaven to see Jaxson and his love for the farm and the animals. How they would have loved him and how he would have loved farming with them.

Happy Birthday Brett

2010-03-23T07:15:00.000-07:00

My hubby turned 29 yesterday. I enjoyed trying to make his birthday extra special for him since I think he's an extra special guy.=) I got up at 3:45am and made German pancakes a favorite of his but not so much mine so I never think of making them. Sunday I made his favorite cookies while he was at work, oatmeal and had bought a small container of milk since Brett loves milk with his desserts for a little surprise in his lunch. I also had arranged an hour long massage for him that night and put the certificate with the time highlighted in his lunch. He came home to his favorites: Pizza Hut meat lovers pizza, green grapes, cucumbers and Dr. Pepper. Opened his presents from Jaxson and I. We gave him Singstar for the Playstation 3 with 4 Singstar games (so if any of you ever want to have a Singstar night just call us), movie tickets (we don't' got to the movie theater very much and if we do Brett always goes to the girly movie I want to see so I told him this tickets are for a "guy movie" he wants to see-he was surprised and happy about that!), a certificate to Win On, his favorite air freshener for his new truck and gum. After opening presents Brett went for his massage and Jaxson and I got our house ready for 23 people to come celebrate Brett's birthday! We had Brett's annual birthday cake--angel food and ice cream cones. It was fun having our family in our home. Brett got more fabulous gifts and Jaxson was in heaven having so many people and cousins to play with. I thought Brett told me the sweet compliment he said, "do you know something I don't am I going to die tomorrow you've done so many nice things for me today" So sweet I think my intention of having Brett feel special and having an extra special birthday was accomplished.=)

He's Here....

2010-03-12T07:14:00.000-08:00

Jayden

After 11 days over his due date and 2 long days of trying to get him here my nephew Jayden has arrived and he is soooooo precious! My sister-in-law Nicki and Joey become proud parents on Thursday, March 11 around 9am.

I found this dump truck candy idea in a book and was able to recreate it I've been anxiously waiting to take it to the hospital along with one of my favorite things--a baby 1st year calendar that you use to document all the big and little things your baby does during their first year.

Brett and I loved holding baby Jayden there is just something so special about a new born. I love that Jaxson will grow up with so many cousins around his age and how special that almost all of them live in Vernal. I really can not wait for all the sleepovers, playdates and fun times! I have a feeling Jayden and Jaxson will be great sport friends.

2010-03-10T09:45:00.000-08:00

We just finished our "heavenly week".=) Brett now works as a pumper through Questar he's now gone from 4:30am till around 5:30pm for 7 days (Wed.-Tues) and then gets 7 DAYS OFF! It was so wonderful to have him off for 7 days. We didn't do anything major and I think that only added to me loving having him home. Since we moved back to Vernal, almost 5 years ago I've worked for the Galleries doing 2 Saturday's a month so that just gives us 4 Sundays (and any LDS family knows that Sunday's specially with kids isn't really a relaxful "day and sometimes can be a harder day) and then 2 Saturday where we were both home and for a long time those Saturday's I'm off have been filled with something that one or both of us needed to do so to have 7 days straight--so fantastic. We and yes I mean we get up at 4am Brett keeps telling me I don't need to get up but I can't sleep with him up and moving around so I might as well get up and be an extra nice wife and fix his lunch and breakfast. I then get to go back to bed and around the time I'm finally getting back to sleep Jaxson wakes up wanting his Phenex but lucky for me he goes back to sleep for an hour or so afterwords. It's a doable but tuff schedule for all of us for 7 days but then "heavenly" for the next 7.=) I obviously love the 7 days off but I also really loving the fixed hours. Construction work is anything but fixed. I'm so appreciative of Brett getting this new job and getting up at 4am he's so not a morning person but he's doing it like a champ and all for our family.=)

So a few things that happened this week.....

One of my favorite nights of the month was last week---Card Group and it was at my house this month. It's so much fun getting together and making cards. We all do 2 cards and I must say everyone in the group is so talented the cards always ROCK! After we are done I just admire the cards they are always so adorable. I use to never give them away I loved them so much but lately I've been getting much better about giving them away. I made two really yummy things for our card group brownies that were called Over the Top Brownies and boy were they over the top they had a chocolate chip cookie bottom, cheesecake middle and chocolate/nut topping and then I made Parmesan Knots that I thought were delicious and extra bonus they were super easy to make. I found a food blog a few weeks ago and I'm just loving it (I'm a new recipe addict) I've made a handful of her things and have been impressed with everything. The blog is realmomkitchen.com if your interested in making something new.

My cards for March. I loved the Spring paper so even though it was snowing outside while we made cards at least we had Spring paper to look at.=)

Brett took me on a date bowling. We went with another couple from our ward. It was a fun Friday night. I actually won the first game I was impressed since I haven't been bowling since I was pregnant with Jaxson. After bowling we went to JB's for a treat. I want to take Jaxson sometime I know he would love bowling for real. He has a toy bowling set he enjoys because it involves a ball. So if anyone of you ever want to go bowling give us a call we're up for it.=)

Sunday we celebrated my sister-in-law Elizabeth's birthday. They had dinner and cake for her at their home. Eric made this really moist and super tasty German Chocolate cake I was very impressed with my brother. Along with doing a dinner that Jaxson could eat they had bought coconut milk ice cream which is an ice cream that Jaxson can have and cones that I have a protein amount for and surprisingly Jaxson LOVED having his 1st ice cream cone with his cousins. He has never been into his coconut milk ice cream so I didn't think he'd like an ice cream cone, I was wrong. I must admit at one point I could have broken down crying as I watched him on Sunday it was the anniversary of the day Jaxson was diagnosed with PKU and on that day I didn't think I would ever see the day my son would be eating "ice cream" like his cousins let alone I didn't have the knowledge of how I could give him that food/social experience. I've gained so much knowledge since that day and feel that I'm personally in such a great accepting place of PKU it's been a long rode and there is still much more to travel and I of coarse have moments where I'm sad/upset about it but for the most part we are doing so well and that makes me just want to burst with happiness. Not to mention every day I still have that moment where I watch Jaxson say or do something and feel so incredibly blessed that he is so healthy and perfect and know that because we were blessed in finding out that he has PKU and what his diet has to be that we get to have him for who he truly is I'm so thankful and in dept to God for that. It makes all the time, effort, emotional discomfort, expensive, etc of PKU so worth it! So even though I'm sure most of you really don't remember the date when your child had their first ice cream cone or have tons of pictures to docoment the moment like I do it was another remarkable moment where in my mind and heart I got to say----take that PKU! =)

My favorite thing this week (I thought it would be the arrival of my nephew Jayden but he is just not wanting to leave Aunt MarShel in heaven. I think she is telling him her great stories and I don't blame him I miss her stories myself) was surprising Elizabeth with a birthday lunch on her birthday, Tuesday. I had made her think that I wanted her to come to my home for a birthday lunch and we'd just let the kids play but in reality I had invited her best buddies and had them waiting for us at Cafe Rio (one of Elizabeth's favorite places) and had made one of her favorite and mine too desserts--German Chocolate Cheese cake. When she got to my house I surprised her that just I and her were going to lunch and Brett was going to watch all 3 kids and feed them lunch-he is the best what can I say. Then we got to Cafe Rio and surprise--it's a birthday lunch with friends! I was so excited over this you would have thought it was my birthday. I just knew Elizabeth would absolutely love it and she did. I love surprising people specially when it's a great surprise that going to be loved!.

Elizabeth's Birthday Lunch at Cafe Rio. I tried something new the coconut shrimp tacos and I'm still thinking about them they were too good.

Jaxson giving Brianna a ride on his 4 wheeler on Tuesday. They had the best day playing together. They are the best buddies I can't help but think that started long before Earth.

Hopefully my next post will be showing off my new nephew Jayden Morton. I'm getting very anxious to met and hold him bless my sister-in-law Nicki for hang in there for so long to get her bundle of joy here! He'll be so worth it!

2010-02-28T12:39:00.000-08:00

Happy Birthday Jaxson!

Jaxson turned 2 on Saturday. This year was fun he knew it was his birthday, that he was 2 (as he shows you 5 fingers) and that he was having a party. I'm so grateful we have Jaxson. He makes our lives so much better and brings so much joy to our home!

We started off the morning with one of his favorite breakfasts, pancakes and bananas. Of coarse we had to do candles in the pancakes. Jaxson just lights up while you sing Happy Birthday to him it's so adorable and like any child the minute the candles are blown out he wants to do it again. Thanks to grandma we've been "practicing" singing the birthday song and blowing out candles the whole month of February so Jaxson is a pro. After breakfast I had him open his gifts that were clothes. Brett started a new job on Wednesday and had to work till 5:30pm so we waited to give him our presents till the party. This year I choose a sport theme for Jaxson since our son already at 2 years old is madly in love with sports, most days are just filled with him and I playing sports and him asking me to find sports on TV for him to watch--what 2 year old does that?=) Believe it or not he can actually dribble a basketball I should post a movie of it sometime it's pretty incredible for a 2 year old. I reserved our church gym so that we could party and have room to play all his favorite sports. It was a big hit with Jaxson he absolutely LOVED it and was in heaven with all of his family around playing "ball"--doesn't get better then that for him! We had basketballs and hoops, footballs to kick and throw, soccer balls to kick and bats and balls to top it off. We had dinner, did a baseball pinata, birthday cake, opened LOTS of great gifts, and celebrated till I said I'm turned off the lights. =) One of the gifts we gave Jaxson was a Hot Wheels 4 wheeler so I had mentioned to everyone coming to the party that if they wanted to bring their child's 4 wheeler, big wheel, roller skates, whatever they could and we would just let the kids have fun! The kids had the best time just having room to move and play. Everything turned out so well and best of all Jaxson had a blast at his party---success!=)

There was so much action going on that it was hard to get really great shots of everyone and everything but here is what I got:Happy Birthday Jaxson!

Our January

2010-01-23T13:11:00.000-08:00

Wow I can't believe it's been so long since I last posted. I guess you can figure out blogging frequently was not my new years resolution.=) January has almost come and gone so I better get a few new things on our blog that has happened in January.

We spent New Years Eve at my brother David's house. David and Danielle always have such a great party for us to celebrate the new year. There is always so much yummy food to eat for hours, tons of games to play and at midnight we toast in the New Year and my brother and nephews shoot off their guns--a long family Olsen tradition night. Our little nighthawk Jaxson stayed up till 12 with no problemDanielle's brother Troy brought Singstar, a game for the Playstation 3. It's alot like karaoke but you compete against another player and if you ask me a lot more fun. Troy had tons of songs people were sing all night long. Brett was captivated for like 4 hours with this game. He loved it which was something I wouldn't have guessed, um can we say birthday gift idea.=)

One of the bigger things that happened in our home in Jan was Jaxson got a big boy bed. I must say taking down the crib was a little hard on me. I not usually emotional about Jaxson changing and moving on but taking down the crib brought out a little bit of emotion for me. The crib was the first thing baby wise I feel in love with and I must say I absolutely loved our crib it was beautiful. When Brettt was taking down the crib he looked at me at one point and said now don't start crying. I think he was enjoying me being the emotinal one. =) It was time for Jaxson to get into a bigger bed and Brett gave the okay for us to get the bed and bedding I really wanted from Pottery Barn for Jaxson so that helped in making the change. Not to mention Jaxson was so incredible excited over his new quilt that has his big love---balls! He was such a happy little boy about his new bed, bedding and baseball lamp it made the moment fun and exciting. I must say it was crazy the first night and week seeing Jaxson in a regular bed. Wow time goes.

In January David and Danielle go to St. George for a fire conference. The kids stay at my mom's. Since I'm a stay at home mommy I got to help out when needed. We love having Braden, Dylan, Carston and Halle in our home. They are always so playful and sweet with Jaxson. It's also a great break for me too.=) Jaxson just loves to be like his big cousins and do whatever they are doing.

Since the weather warmed up on Friday and Saturday this last weekend we took advantage and took Jaxson sledding for the 1st time. We invited his cousins along for the fun. Jaxson absolutely loved it and couldn't get enough. I know if he was able to he would be asking me to take him everyday now. He laughed the whole time while sledding it was so darn cute Jaxson really does have one of the best laughs. He even loved going off bumps and hills like his big cousins. The moment the ride was over without missing a beat he would say,"again." Made me for a moment thankful we do live in Vernal with all this snow.=)

2009 Christmas

2009-12-29T13:57:00.001-08:00

We had a wonderful Christmas. Brett and I both loved watching Christmas through Jaxson's eyes. He was so happy with his ball from Santa that could have been Christmas enough for him. Jaxson, Brett and myself received so many nice presents. We were spoiled this year. Jaxson started coughing Christmas Eve afternoon, was up all night long but still managed to enjoy Christmas. We found out on Saturday that he had an ear infection--no fun--he is already feeling better thankfully. We had to talk him into putting his ball next to him and opening presents.

I gave Brett a 32 GB IPOD touch. He was very happy with it and played with it almost non stop Christmas day. I was clueless when I bought it and had no idea all the things it could do. After I found out it made more sense why they cost what they do. =) In October I accidentally washed his MP3 player that he uses daily at work he was a great sport about it and thankfully held off getting something else so I could have a great Christmas gift for him.

Brett completely surprised me with the beautiful Kitchen Aid. My Oprah trip was suppose to be my Christmas and Anniversary gift this year but when I walked into the kitchen this gorgeous Kitchen Aid was waiting for me. I've been using my mom's almost weeklysince Aug. to make things for Jax and our family. I'm so excited to have my very own I'll for sure put it to use. It's a special addition so the bowl is glass and all the attachments are silver. I couldn't have picked a better one myself. I just love it!

We spent the morning opening our presents in our home, then went to my parents for our annual Christmas breakfast my parents cook up a storm. I'm not much of a big breakfast eater but I do love their Christmas breakfast. We then go and see each other's Christmas. Jaxson napped he was so tired and Brett and I prepared our food assignments for his parents Christmas dinner. We went down to his parents home. Brett went sledding and snowboarding on a hill his dad had made for them in their back yard (it was funny seeing Brett turn back into a little kid again) , we ate dinner and opened more fantastic presents. It was a perfect Christmas except Jax-a-roo feeling under the weather. Hope you had a Christmas too!

Christmas Eve

2009-12-29T13:48:00.000-08:00

This year we spent Christmas Eve at my parents home. We had a great dinner. My amazing and very thoughtful mom went out of her way to make sure everything but the ham was something Jaxson could eat. That meant a lot to me. My parents always put together a gift exchange of some kind for us to play. It's gets better every year as the nieces and nephews get older and "stealing" a gift is fun. We also played a new gift exchange. Every family thought of a service they would like to give away to another family and we did another kind of gift exchange and each family won a service. Our family won Aunt Elizabeth's famous homemade yummy salsa and chips. Grandpa and Grandma won ours swimming at the rec with Jaxson and treats afterwords. We ended our night with a fun ride on the Naples firetruck thanks to Dave. We sang Christmas songs and watched for Santa the whole ride. Jaxson feel asleep towards the end of the ride. It made for a simple and easy bedtime--loved that!=) I didn't take too many pictures I was having a great time and totally forgot to snap pictures but here are two I did take during the night.

Before the Holidays

2009-12-29T13:09:00.000-08:00

Last year I heard of a family that does an annual progressive dinner around Christmas time so they can see each other's home's during the Christmas season. I loved that idea and wanted to copy it. So I mentioned it to both families. Carolee thought it would be fun to do it on a Monday night for family home evening. So the Monday before Christmas we did a Family Home Evening progressive dinner. It was so much fun. We started at Hedi and Jeff's house they did the appetizer and prayer. We then went to Joey and Nick's for veggies and songs. We had dinner at Leif and Roxanna's and they did the scripture. We came to our home for the lesson. We did the birth of Christ. We then went to Brett's mom and dad's for treats and the activity. Carolee made sugar cookie stockings and a yummy bunt cake. For our activity we did a gift exchange. It was such a fun night. I hope it becomes our new family tradition. I loved seeing every ones home all decorated for Christmas and it was also fun to do a big family home evening with everyone. I wouldn't mind doing it a couple of times through out the year.The kids doing songs!
Dinner

We had a December play day with Jaxson's younger cousins. RyLee and Kylen were able to make it. We played toys, ate a Christmas lunch, made a craft, did playdough, bubbles and read stories.
I made Jaxson Christmas cupcakes last year and decided I would do it every year. This year we added Snowmen and Santa's. I thought they turned out so amazing!

Dressed in our Christmas clothes for church. I loved Jaxson's Sunday Christmas outfit this year he looked so adorable.
Our ward had a Christmas party the second week of December. At the end of the party there was a special visitor, Santa. Jaxson loved watching him and was very excited Santa was there. When it was his turn to sit on Santa's lap he wasn't as excited. I thought we were going to get the classic screaming and crying with Santa picture. He didn't cry but I think he was happy and relieved to get off his lap he did love the sack of goodies Santa had brought him.

On Monday, December 14 we had a family dinner and FHE at Eric and Elizabeth's. Santa stopped on by to see what the kids were wishing for. This is one of my favorite things we do during the Christmas season as an Olsen family. I remember as a little girl we would have Santa come to our home and I always felt so special that Santa would come to our home. All of Jaxson's cousin went before him so when it was his turn he walked over to Santa all by himself, asked for a ball, admired his bread and loved his sack from Santa filled with goodies and toys.

Santa's coming!
Having a heart to heart with Santa about bring him a ball.

Nicki's Baby Shower

2009-12-10T13:48:00.000-08:00

Last weekend we had my sister-in-law Nicki's baby shower. She's due February 28 (the day after Jaxson's birthday) with a boy. They are going to name him Jayden. I'm so excited to have Jayden in our family. Nicki and Joey have been wanting and waiting for a baby for while. Jayden is a big blessing to his mom and dad and our family. I know Aunt MarShel is loven' on him right now but I can't wait to see and hold him soon.
My wonderful hubby came in the morning and let me boss him around. He put up our tables, chairs and snowflakes without complaining. What a man!

Our tables. It looked so beautiful.

Our food table. We had corn chowder, taco soup, breadstick and salad. For dessert we had mini cupcakes, mini peppermint sugar cookies, mini peanut butter hershey kiss cookies, fudge and toffee. YUM!

Our party favors. I made blue and white mother goose popcorn and tied an upside down candy cane ( 'J' for Jayden) and then scrabooked a tag that had Jayden Morton on it. They turned out so cute and I think looked adorable in a red wagon.

Nicki opening presents. She got LOTS of great things. Little tiny baby things are so adorable.

Christmas Trees

2009-12-10T10:22:00.000-08:00

Every year we go with my family to the mountain to get our Christmas tree. I love having a real tree in our home. This year was special my brother Greg and his three kids went with us. We cut down trees and had lunch. After getting our trees we then went to my parents home and did our annual gingerbread houses. Bless my mom's heart it's so much prep work to do these she makes one for all the grandkids and then one for all of us momies and herself--that's A LOT of gingerbread houses. Mom you're the best! I didn't get any pictures of us actually doing them. It was a crazy busy, sticky, fun candy time so no pictures. I do have have one of how they turned out.Jaxson ready to find our tree. He loved his boots. While Brett was putting them on he keep saying, "Wow".

cousin Gracie, Brianna and Halle with Jaxson

On their way to find our Christmas tree

I just love this picture. My boys are so good looking!

My hunky husband caring our tree to our truck

Jax loved the snow

Helping dad drag our tree
Hanging out with cousin Brianna and Carston
Jaxson with the two girls he adores--Grandma and Abbie.

Jaxson and my gingerbread houses

Our Thanksgiving

2009-12-10T09:51:00.000-08:00

This year for Thanksgiving we were with the Erickson family. Brett's grandma Erickson turned 90 in November so the day after Thanksgiving they were having a big birthday party for her so all of Brett's Erickson family was in town. It was a total of around 88 people I believe. We had Thanksgiving dinner all together at Brett's Aunt Anita's church. It was fun to be with such a big group of people. They had went all out and had decorated for the dinner it was beautiful. It was also so nice to have such a big place for the kids to play. I cooked low protein: stuffing, mashed potatoes, rolls, pumpkin pie and banana cream pie for my little guy. Jaxson has become a little basketball star and since there were hoops around he could have cared less what was on his plate he just wanted to shoot hoops. He is taking after his dad and is in love with basketball!

Jaxson and Kylen were watching the older kids shoot hoops. Kylen and Jaxson playing ball.

Playing ball with Grandpa

My little basketball star

A little dodge ball after eating

Watching the game. Darwin (Brett's dad), Heidi (Brett's sister), Jax and myself.

The day after Thanksgiving Brett's whole family did pictures at the Vernal temple grounds. I haven't gotten copies of those pictures but we did some Erickson cousin pictures before we all left. Here are some of the cousins that we LOVE playing with! There is Jaxson, Kylen, Kaysia, Payton and RyLee.
Brett dancing with Grandma Erickson at her 90th birthday party. They had a program and at the end they had all Grandma Erickson's grandson's take turns dancing with grandma. They danced in order of birth it was so adorable. If I live to be 90 and have grandson's I want to do that.=) Brett's grandma Erickson is so special. She is spunky, fun and just an all around sweet and wonderful lady.

"O" I Loved Every Moment!

2009-11-20T21:17:00.000-08:00

My trip to Oprah....the BEST ! I have wanted to blog about it but life has been crazy and super busy. Sadly blogging about Oprah had to take a back seat for a while. But I'm now ready to spill the details and pictures about my trip so if you're not an Oprah fan or someone that doesn't like to read long blog post them this one is not for you!=)

So my very lucky sister-in-law Elizabeth (the one who actually won the 4 tickets after 4 years of trying), our friend Cindy and myself flew out of Grand Junction, CO to Denver on a Thursday night. We then flew to Chicago. (on the plane to Chicago!)

We arrived in Chicago around 10:30 pm their time. (We've made it to CHICAGO!)

We got to our hotel, figured out how we would be getting around Chicago and got to bed around 12:30am. We then were up at 4am to get ready for Oprah! We rode the blue line, kind of like a subway (well it's somewhat of a subway it goes underground and above ground), a bus for a few split second and then walked down Michigan Ave to the ever so famous Harpo Studios. (Cindy and I on the blue line)

Elizabeth was the first to see Harpo and I'll never forget her scream and instant sprint. We were all VERY excited. It was so unbelievable to see Harpo studio-got my heart pumping and made it feel very real what we were there to do.

(Harop studios!)

When we got to Harpo we had to show our ID's to 2 different people in 2 different spots before we even stepped foot in the actually building. We were told there would be no pictures and no cell phones so sadly such a memorable event was only captured in my mind. I would have loved to have took some pictures inside the building, all well. Once inside the building we went through metal detectors, checked our coats and had our purses completely looked through. There were four people doing purse checked wearing white gloves and they where digging and going through every inch of the purse. Myself and Cindy got our purses back minus our camera and cell phones Elizabeth and her sister purses where kept because they were too big along with our phones and cameras till the end of the show . The room where all this is going on has big pictures of Oprah giving away the cars. We then went upstairs where you sign a paper giving your rights away to Harpo of anything you might say or shots taken of you. This room was huge with big pictures of Oprah with different guest. There is probably about 8 and each wall. There were 2 big screen tv's playing her 20th anniversary cd's. We waiting in that room for almost an hour. They then started calling people into the audience. Walking into her audience was so super cool. It was so mind blowing to be passing through areas that I've seen before while watching her show and signs that say the Oprah Winfrey Show. You walk through the area where Oprah use to walk out and touch peoples hands (for those of you who are big time Oprah watchers). The studio looked a lot smaller to me then I had imagined it. We get our seats and there are around 20 crew men getting camera and stage stuff ready. One guy is vacuuming the spot where Oprah will stand and after he's done two guys start scrubbing the floor that has absolutely nothing on it. Upbeat music is playing and then a lady comes out to get you all excited and then they play Black Eye Pea's song "I've got a Feeling" talk about getting your adrenaline going. I didn't catch this lady's name but she beautiful and very well spoken. I enjoyed listening to her. When it's almost time she tells us "Ladies you can hold your pee for 1 hour. Enjoy the show because it's going to go by fast" Boy was she right the whole show felt like only 15 min it went by so fast.

About 45 sec to Oprah Live Oprah walks out--AMAZING! I could feel tears starting to come to my eyes (nerdy I know) it was so amazing to be actually seeing her in person. She asks Dean (her stage manager) how much time he tells her like 30 sec. and she makes some comment about her shoes being only 1 hour shoes and that the clock is ticking. She had on HIGH HIGH heels. She didn't look different size wise to me but she was shorter then I thought she would be. Hair and makeup perfect.

Oprah interviews Stephanie Meyer, the author of the Twilight Series. At one point in the interview Oprah mentions giving away 600 box sets of her books to a school and that the audience would not be left out. Everyone jumped out of their seat we were all soooo excited to be leaving the show with something. After Stephanie Meyers they had Robin Givens on she's Mike Tyson's ex wife. They ended the show with announcing the karaoke winner and having the winner sing us out. While he was sing Oprah walked and stood by the side we were sitting on and she was within feet from me. WOW--heart attach!=)

After the show she stood back on her stage and express her application for us all coming to see her. She was so sincere and knew that sacrifices, time, new clothes and babysitters had to planned for us to be there. I loved Oprah before but REALLY loved her after going to her show. Oprah left a few minutes after the tapping and one of her workers told us we get our Twilight box set as we left and we could take it to the Oprah store and Stephanie would sign one book

(Just after the show with our gift! Waiting in line to get it signed by Stephanie Meyer!)

(Robin Givens came to the Oprah store after the taping. She was skinny and so kind!)

The Oprah store was so beautiful.

In front of the famous Harpo Studios sign! People recognize our Oprah green bags and asked us everywhere we went about Oprah and what free thing she had given to us! So fun!

Walking to the Harpo sign we passed the famous paring lot where the new cars were given away sadly no new cars for us that day.=)

Cindy and I in the Taxi. It was both of us first time to ride a taxi, kind of scary. I would not like to drive down town Chicago--crazy.

A worker at the Oprah store told us we had to eat at Giordano's and have their world famous Chicago deep dish pizza.

We then did some shopping at the famous Magnificent Mile. It's a mile of upscale stores. We went to the Hershey store and the The America Girl Place store before time ran out. We then rode the bus and blue line back to our hotel. Wow we were exhausted from such a memorable perfect day!

Saturday morning we're ready to come back to Utah to our loved ones!

Unbelievable News

2009-11-06T22:16:00.001-08:00

So something very unbelievable is going to happen to me......I will be sitting in Oprah's audience Friday, Nov. 13. Let's all scream and take a breath! My wonderful sister in law, Elizabeth has extended one of her four "golden" Oprah tickets to me! Bless her heart she has been trying and trying to get into Oprah's audience for years. In fact she has been known to call when they use to give out ticket through phone call over 300 times in one single day trying to get tickets. We've talked about going to Oprah before and how awesome it would be but it always seemed so hypothetical, out of reach and not something that would happen to us Vernal gals. Well not anymore!

You know how sometimes you fill out those getting to know you questionnaires and you come across questions like if you could do anything what would you like to do---I always put go to Oprah or if you could met anyone who would you like to meet---I always put Oprah. Well I'm going to get to live out my dream next Friday. I've been trying not to actually think too much about it because if I do I get so excited and wound. I'm getting goosebumps just writing this. I'll for sure post pictures and blog all the details! I'm thinking since we are the first taping (she does two tapings on Friday) that we'll be the Friday Live show so if that's the case watch for me on Friday if you watch Lady O. We have no idea what topic we are going to so we'll just have to wait and see.

Oprah Here I Come!

Halloween Night

2009-11-04T12:28:00.000-08:00

This year Jaxson was a Zebra. We picked a Zebra because Jaxson just loves them. The costume came with a head piece but I knew there was no way he was going to wear it and Brett came up with the idea to spray paint his hair in stripes. He sat so still for it and was so incredible good when I panted his nose black. It was such a fun night to take him to our family and friends trick or treating. He loved caring his Halloween bucket and having people put something inside of it. Everyone was so thoughtful and had found stuff or called and double check with me on candy that would be healthy and something that Jaxson could eat. I found myself having so much fun watching him have so much fun. One thing I loved about his costume was watching him walk because his tail would wiggle back and forth it was so adorable.

Brett's cousin Candace had a Halloween party that night so we went to her house after trick or treating. It was a costume party so Brett and I got to dress up too. I went as a fortune teller (wearing a dress my mom use to wear) and Brett was Kramer from Seinfeld. I wish I had a full body shot of Brett he looked hilarious. His pants were so tight and high water.

Brett, our brother in law Jeff and Brett's brother Leif as Noco Lebra

Jaxson munching while talking with his cousin Kylen who was Gus Gus from Cinderella his sister Kaysia was Cinderella--so cute!

The little Zebra couldn't help his animal instincts to ruff house a little bit with cousin Kylen.

Our Cousin Halloween Party

2009-11-04T10:37:00.000-08:00

We had a blast on Halloween. Hands down one of my favorite Halloween's I've ever had. I've probably added more pictures on this post then maybe I should have but we had such a fun time I wanted to post what I had taken.

So the party started with an invitation:

We invited Jaxson's cousins which was a total of 15 kids:

We had the majority of the party in our 3rd bedroom which we had decked out with Halloween decor while Halloween music played---so much fun wish I would have taken a full room picture of it. We had Halloween playdough with Halloween cookie cutters, Oobleck, slime with Halloween things mixed in it and a Halloween puzzle out for everyone to enjoy while we waited for everyone to arrive.

We then played Halloween games. The winners of the games got to pick out wrapped Halloween gifts and we also had a table set up with other prizes for those that participated and weren't "tricked" during the games. Our first game was pin the nose on the Jack O' Lantern.

We then played trick or treat. The kids had to pull out a paper from a pumpkin. If it said treat they got to go over to the prize table and get a prize if it said trick it then told them something that they had to do. Our next games were outside (what a blessing it was such a wonderful day) we played Musical Bats and then broke into 2 teams and did a pumpkin relay where they could only use their chins to move the pumpkin from person to person.

We came back inside for our Halloween craft. We made skeleton candy necklaces.

Brett and I then sent the kids on a treasure hunt around the farm we live on to find their Halloween gift from us. They were Halloween mugs. We drew out their names and they got to pick which mug they wanted to use at lunch and then take home.

It was then time for our hunted kitchen to cook up some lunch for them. I had told them on their invitation that our hunted kitchen would be brewing up:

Graveyard tombstones-nuggets

Blood-Ketchup

Rotten Guts-Ranch

Mummy Fingers-homemade French fries that my amazing brothers Greg and Eric cooked

Eyeballs-Grapes

Vampire Fangs-Apple slices

Frankenstein Toes-pickles

Haunted Trees-Broccoli and Cauliflower

Scarecrow noses-Carrots

Ghost Drool-Water

Witches Brew-Root Beer with Dry Ice

Spider Webs-cupcakes with frosted spider webs and candy spiders on them

We had them all sitting and then brought out the food and we each asked them individual if they would like graveyard tombstones, mummy fingers, etc.

We ended the party by playing a Spider ring toss game and eating our Spider Web cupcakes. I had so much fun planning this party as you can read and then doing it for those that I love so much. What a wonderful day we had all together. The kids were having a ball and it went so smoothly and was such a fun time.

Friday, Oct 30

2009-11-03T19:29:00.000-08:00

Every October I make a special meal we call, Meal in a Pumpkin. It's a soup that you cook in a pumpkin. This year I made it the night we were carving pumpkins. While we were at the Young's picking out our 3 pumpkins for our dinner I spotted this tiny pumpkin and got it for Jaxson. He had so much fun with it he must have played with it for a good hour. Jaxson was so fascinated with pumpkins this year and this tiny one really took his interest.

Carving pumpkins at my mom and dad's. Brett and I thought Jaxson needed a sheep carved in his since he is so in love with sheep right now.
Jaxson with his pumpkin. He called it his " baa" and then started calling every pumpkin he saw "baa".

Halloween Lunch

2009-10-28T10:07:00.001-07:00

Yesterday Jaxson and I had over his Erickson cousins, Aunts and Grandma for a Halloween lunch. I made the kids mini mummy pizza, they turned out so adorable. If you look at their plates you can see them. Jaxson and I had also made low protein pumpkin cookies for everyone. Grandma, Aunt Nicki, Aunt Roxanna and Aunt Heidi had also brought other delicious food. It was a fun lunch. We ate, let the kids play for a bit and then took everyone up to the cemetery to decorate MarShel grave with some Halloween things. We had a good laugh over a balloon getting away and Carolee chasing after it and then the three kids chasing it till they couldn't see it in the sky anymore. I'm sure MarShel got a kick of our visit as well. She's still making us laugh.

Lunch, Witches and Reagan

2009-10-28T09:10:00.000-07:00

On Saturday we got to do something extra special and really fun. Feed Jaxson at an Italian restaurant, Buca di Beppo. We travel out to SLC and went to a PKU celebration meal. A company that sales PKU formula sponsored the event. They had low protein spaghetti, low pro rolls, salad, low protein cookies (3 kinds), fruit and low protein chocolate for fondue. They also served regular spaghetti, bread and dessert for us non PKUers. Jaxson ate 2 plates of spaghetti so I think he gave it 2 thumbs up. Words can't explain how wonderful it was to walk into a restaurant and give Jaxson an actual meal and not have to bring out any food I had packed in my purse nor did I have to figure out any protein values for the food he was eating because they were handed to me when we checked in. I don't know if we'll ever experience this kind of thing again but we soaked in the experience and enjoyed every moment. Had to have a picture of my son eating in an Italian restaurant and having a full plate of low protein food in front of him that I didn't cook or have to calculate.

We sat by the Reeder family. They were going to the U of U game after lunch so they were all decked out. Andrea, the mom was the first PKU mom that our dietitian introduced to me. She talked to Brett and I for over an hour and helped us gain faith and hope that Jaxson would live a "normal" life and started giving us knowledge on how we would provide that for him. So Brett and I have a really special place in our heart for her and her family. She has 3 boys two with PKU and one without. Isn't it wonderful that with me just telling you that info you really don't know who in this picture has PKU and who doesn't. Love that about PKU. In this picture there is actually 4 people with PKU and 4 without PKU.

Jaxson was very fascinated with Jonah. He loved his hat and liked to drink his water when Jonah was drinking his drink.

After the lunch we took Jaxson to Gardner Village to see the witches, so darn cute. I had never seen them myself and I couldn't get over how adorable it was.

Coming back to Vernal we stopped at the Park City Outlets. I was at our car when I heard this voice that sounded so familiar I looked over and there was Reagan Leadbetter from Good Things Utah getting out of her car and talking to her son as they headed towards the Nike store. I flipped out! I love GTU. I have watched it for 5 years Mon-Fri so so I was a little "Star Struck" when I saw her. She is my FAVORITE host of the show. So I dragged Brett and Jaxson back into Nike (we had already been there and spent a good 30-45 minutes--it's Brett's favorite outlet store) so that I could get another look and then I got the courage to walk over, talk to her and ask for a picture. She was so nice and super friendly. All the way home I couldn't get over that I met Reagan and had a picture with her.

Kylen

2009-10-22T07:03:00.000-07:00

Happy 2nd Birthday Kylen!

Today our nephew and one of Jaxson best buddies turns 2. Kylen is such a sweetie and can give out the best hugs. He is talking so much right now I love hearing what he has to say. Kylen and Jaxson are starting to interact and play with each other and it's so fun to watch. I just know these two are going to have so much fun growing up together. Happy Birthday Kylen we love you so much!

Cancer Sucks

2009-10-14T20:56:00.000-07:00

Heaven received a beautiful spirit on Wednesday, my amazing sister-law MarShel. She has battled her cancer like a super hero. What an example she has been to all who were blessed to know her. When I started dating Brett MarShel lived in SLC so it wasn't until Brett's brother Leif came home from his mission that I met her for the first time. It was plain to see that she was the star and life of the party and that being around her was a pure joyful time. To say she leaves a HUGE hole is an understatement. I feel so blessed that I got to know her in this life and claim her as my sister-in-law. She truly was a one of a kind and will be deeply missed until we are reunited again.

Halloween Chips

2009-10-09T19:45:00.000-07:00

I was so happy by these I had to post about them and also wanted to share with my fellow PKU mommies out there that check in on us through our blog. Look what I made today for Jaxson...

Homemade Low Protein Halloween Tortilla Chips

There our pumpkins, bats, skeletons, moons, cats and ghosts for Jaxson to munch on this month. So how do you make a homemade low protein Hallowen tortiilla chip, first I had to make low protein tortillas, press and bake them on our tortilla press, cut them out with Halloween cookie cutters, fry them in our fryer and then salt. I love how they turned out and all the work has sure been worth it since Jaxson has enjoyed quit a few of them today.

I'm so thankful I have the knowledge, special ingredients and products (much thanks to my parents for their love, support and generosity towards PKU) to make things like this for my little guy it makes my heart so warm and fuzzy. So if you are in the neighborhood stop on by for a yummy low protein Halloween tortilla chip we'd love to share with you.

FHE

2009-10-07T10:11:00.000-07:00

Monday night we were lucky and got to have my niece Halle and my nephew Carston spend a few hours with us. Jaxson squealed with delight when they showed up. He loves these two they always play so cute with him. We had family home evening while they where here and Halle was in charge of the activity for the night. She picked playdough and a Halloween glow in the dark puzzle. Carston lead us in some fun songs, Brett keep us on track, I did a lesson about following our prophet's recent advice to serve one another using a toy fishing pole and fish and Jaxson passed out a very yummy low protein pumpkin cake with cream cheese frosting. I love family home evening!

Everyone was having such a great time playing with plydough I had to get the camera.

Halle created a Jack o Latern and a witches nose
Brett created a golf club

I created Jaxson's name and a spider

Jaxson just loved touching the playdough and putting it back in the container and getting it out

Carston created a golf ball and a bunny

Gingerbread Men and A Hurt Brett

2009-10-01T20:31:00.000-07:00

Every Fall my mom tries to get all the grandkids together to make gingerbread men and decorate them to take home to their families. She lets them help her cut out the cookies and then they get to decorate them anyway they want. This year the kids decided on blue and pink frosting and they used mini M&M's. My mom put her great cookie expertize to work and created a yummy low protein gingerbread cookie for Jaxson. He ate 1 1/2 gingerbread boys before it was dinner time he was loving them. Jaxson enjoyed spending the day with his cousins you could see it made him feel big and he loved being around them and doing what they were doing.

Getting the Gingerbread men cut out
Lexie and Jaxson

Helping Jaxson cut out his gingerbread boys

Braden and Abbie

Getting started

Halle and Gracie--all business

Brianna and Lexie hard at work

Jaxson decorated 2 and then decided he needed a taste Jaxson's gingerbread cookies and also some of Halle's and Gracie's

Getting a little sidetracked

Enjoying Life

This year I've given out Flirty Aprons as gifts to all the girls in my life and today these girls had their aprons on so I wanted a picture. Aren't we so stylish!

Annual Fall shot with Grandma!

We had just finished decorating the gingerbread men and were getting lunch ready when I got a call from Brett that he had just left the Urgent Care and was going to the hospital to see if he needed a skin graph. He sliced his thumb at work on a saw. Thankfully he didn't cut it off or cut the tendons. BIG BLESSING. But from 2pm till 8 we were in the hosptial getting his thumb fixed, it was a long day. They had to take a peice of skin from his arm and graph it on his thumb to close up the wound. He also got a red cast. The funny thing is his brother Leif has a cast too on his left arm right now. So when Leif and his family came over to check on Brett I had to get a picture. Now how many brothers can say that they both had a cast at the same time it's so odd it's funny. Brett doing well. It's one of those things that you wish wouldn't have happened to your loved one but at the same time it could have been so much worse so you count your blessing that it is what it is.

My Little Shadow

2009-09-28T13:58:00.001-07:00

You know how there are moments that only you as a mom love and care about as much as you do about your child and what they have done well this was one of them. I just had to get a picture.Jaxson has always adored the vacuum. He gets very excited when I get it out and vacuum. He loves to follow it and really loves the cord. Ever since Grandma gave him a popping vacuum he goes and gets it and vacuums right along with me. It makes me smile every time. Well today when we were all done and I was putting the vacuum away he put his right by mine. He usually leaves it in the last room we vacuumed on the floor but not this time. Loved it!

Jaxson been super sick with ear infections and the flu. He's been so misable but after getting prescription medicine in him (which he absolutely can't stand taking) he is doing so much better. I'm so grateful for modern medicine. He is almost 100% back to his healthy self.

Last week my mom dropped off a thank you card she received for me and while at our house her cell phone rang. Jaxson then started "talking" as well using the calculate that was near by. Made me laugh so much. I'm glad he keep it up in time for me to get a picture.

Rodeo

2009-09-20T22:11:00.000-07:00

Saturday night our new ward, Naples 1st ward had a ward party. It was a dinner and then a rodeo. It was so much fun. We ate dinner at the Naples park and then walked to Dean Baker's land for the rodeo. It was such a fun night for the kids and very entertaining for us adults. First they did sack races.

They did every event by ages. Jaxson was in the 1-5 year old group. When they got to 15 year old gruop they opened it up to anyone and good old Brett always gave it a try. Here is Brett sack racing. He took second he was so close to taking first
They had hay steer out and ropes for the kids to play with . Jaxson just loved sitting on it and grabbing the horns.
They had a chicken chase. Jaxson wasn't into chasing the chicken put loved petting the ones that had been caught.
They did other activities like barrel races (both Jaxson and Brett participated), sheep riding, and a team contest with tying up 3 legs of a goat. Fun night!

Random Shots Of Our Life

2009-09-20T20:09:00.001-07:00

My girl friend since 5th grade, Mandi had her baby girl on Sept. 5. She named her Bonnie Mae after her two great grandma's, such a thoughtful thing to do. I was finally able to make it up to her house to meet this little cutie and take her dinner. She was so adorable! As we took this picture I found myself thinking wow so crazy we are at this point in life weren't we just playing on the playground, going to school, graduating college and getting married. Life goes fast! I'm so happy that Mandi has joined me in the Mommy Club!

Jaxson enjoying the place we now get to call home....

Just posing for the camera all on his own....

Cooking

2009-09-20T19:51:00.000-07:00

I've been busy trying out new low protein recipes. So far everything has been a hit with my little man. We are so blessed to have such an eater on our hands. I've been so super impressed with Brenda's (not my mom---another PKU mom that's put together a website) recipes. She really ROCKS when it comes to low protein recipes! So what have a I been cooking....

Chocolate Chip Cookies, Snicerdoodles, banana bread and a Macaroni and Cheese sauceIt made my night to feed Jaxson a creamy yummy Mac and Cheese. He loved it so much he stopped eating it with his fork and went straight to his hands so he could get it in his mouth quicker. I got a hold of an out of this world recipe for regular homemade high protein mac and cheese while in college so it made my night to now feel like I have a just as yummy low protein mac and cheese to feed my little man!

Veggie Nuggets--he can't get enough of these

Sugar Cookies--we shared these with the nursery kids on Sunday

We also tried out Brenda's low protein waffles and french toast--which were all eaten up. Hip Hip Hooray for yummy low protein recipes! Bless Brenda and her fabulous recipes!

Carolee's Birthday

2009-09-20T19:06:00.000-07:00

Brett's mother, Carolee had a birthday last week. All of Brett's siblings and ourselves put together a dinner for her. It was fun to do a dinner for Carolee she cooks a lot for the family. It was a yummy one. The grandkids sent her 6 roses (a rose for each grandchild) earlier in the day they were beautiful. Jaxson was super patient and I was able to do 20 homemade scrapbook cards for Carolee. I've learned that scrapbooking with a child is completely different then scrabooking without one. Wow and hats off to all of you mommies out there that scrapbook on a regular bases. I do love making cards. I've started a monthly card group and I liked three of the cards I had made for Carolee so much I made them for our upcoming card group. I also loved a baby card so much I made a couple to have on hand so when all was said and done I had 41 cards. It was fun but boy did our house look like a bomb had went off. Here is some of the cards.

Carolee always has cute magnets on her fridge so I made her the cutest magnet ever--magnets of her grandkids. The one that looks a little different is my nephew Jayden that's growing in my sister in law, Nicki's belly. Jayden is due Feb. 28 the day after Jaxson's birthday. I can't wait to meet the little guy.
The kids all wanted to put their own magnet on Grandma's fridge.

Happy Birthday Grandma!

2009-09-07T07:11:00.000-07:00

Sunday was a BIG day for Jaxson. He went to nursery for the first time. He absolutely LOVED it. Brett and I walked him down to the nursery room and when we got there Brett sat him down and without any hesitation he left us and went right for the toys. He had never been there before but wasn't scared or nervous one bit . He was there for 2 hours and the 4 nursery leaders all told us that he had a great time. Our little dude is growing up on us.

I could resist getting out the camera for this shot as we walked to the truck to go home after church.

This week my mom and I made low protein cinnamon rolls. They were so YUMMY! Brenda, a mom back east that has two kids one with PKU has as done a non profit website (www.cookforlove.org) with some really amazing recipes. So far I've made her yellow cake, banana bread and now her cinnamon rolls. They all have been a big hit with Jaxson. Everything I've made of hers also taste "normal" and could be enjoyed by anyone. On Labor Day my mom and I are going to make her veggie nuggets. I hope they are as success as the rest of the food as been. I'm so thankful for such wonderful "pioneers" like Brenda that help us new PKU mom's out.
Love'n the cinnamon roll. I couldn't get it in his mouth fast enough.

This week we also had a playdate with cousin RyLee and Payton. It was fun having the girls over at our new place. Jaxson enjoyed showing off his new yard to RyLee. We walked down on the farm and fed the cows and horses hay. Now how many people can do that on a playdate. Jaxson loves the hay and gets upset when I tell him it's time to go. I think my little man is turning into a farmer.

Bear Lake

2009-08-24T20:00:00.000-07:00

Last Thursday we left for Bear Lake, Utah. In July Brett's cousin Kit called and invited us along with Brett's family and Kit's family for a great family get away in August. Kit was able to get us a big cabin that all of us could stay together there was around 40 people. So from Thursday till Sunday morning we were able to call this place home:

The cabin had three levels, beautiful views, a basement that was full of toys, a yard that was packed with kid friendly things and almost every room had a bathroom. We ate breakfast together and then hung out at Bear Lake all day. They had brought up 2 boats and tons of things to ride. I even took Jaxson on the Jumbo Dog it was fun till we tipped over thank goodness for life jackets. At night we had yummy family dinners and just enjoyed the moment together.

Friday Brett took Jaxson and I back to Logan. Brett and I lived there as a couple for 3 years and I lived there for 5 years so it was fantastic to "go back home" in away. I loved Logan and my college years . We took Jaxson up to USU and got a famous Aggie A picture. It was crazy in a good way for me to bet sitting in front of Old Main with my husband and my son on the A. I loved sharing USU with Jaxson. We drove around Logan, saw our old place and went out to dinner at one of our favorite places.

We had such a wonderful family time. Jaxson couldn't get enough of the sand and water. It was one of those trips that you wish time would slow down and you would be perfectly happy doing every year.

Kole

2009-08-23T15:48:00.001-07:00

Happy 3rd Brithday Kole!

Kole is such a sweet boy. He loves Honda's, trucks, tractors, motorcycles and Grandpa so him and Jaxson get along very well. He is such a smart boy he's fun to talk to. We love you so much Kole! Happy birthday Kole!

A Special Night

2009-08-18T22:35:00.000-07:00

On Tuesday night Brett and I were able to attend the Vernal temple with his sister MarShel. It was such a SPECIAL and emotional night. MarShel is such a great example to all of us in the importance of preparing to return back to our Father in heaven. She has had such a great attitude while dealing with her cancer. She's still one of the most funniest gals I know. I'm so thankful we were able to spend such precious time with her in the temple it really was a night to remember.

Brianna

2009-08-17T09:00:00.001-07:00

Happy 3rd Birthday Brianna!

Brianna is Jaxson's BEST buddy. I just love Brianna like one of my own. She is so fun and and for sure funny. Her and Jaxson have the best time together and I love how every time they first see each other they scream with such excitement. We love you so much Brianna! Happy Birthday!

Train, Pony and the Fair

2009-08-15T14:04:00.000-07:00

Friday night we were invited to a neighborhood dinner. The party was at a very neat place, the Mott's. They have spent years building a train track around their house and land. They even have a tunnel for the train to go under, a bridge it goes over and a small petting zoo it goes by. If that wasn't enough they got out a Shetland pony for the kids to ride. Jaxson just loved it. He started calling the pony "mine".

Riding the train as a family

Saturday we took Jaxson to the fair. I had signed him up for the baby contest. He did so well. It was very noisy and a lot going on where they had the contest but Brett and I were impressed with the "tricks" he was willing to do. He won Best Style and I think our Jaxson does have style. After the contest we walked around the fair. We had so much fun with Jaxson in the Little Red Barn. It was a fun place for kids to do hand-on farm things.
Waiting in line to see the judges

Jaxson with his style award! Way to go stylish Jaxson!

Big Red Barn Pictures

Planting Corn

Gathering corn seed to feed the cows
Driving a "tractor" and wagon

Milking the cow

They gave every child an apron and basket to go through the Little Red Barn

Jaxson loved the animals and hay that were around the barn.

One of the helpers in the barn was a teacher I had taught with at Naples so she spoiled us and had her husband get out on of the baby pigs for Jaxson to pet.

Halle

2009-08-08T06:55:00.000-07:00

Happy 8th Birthday Halle!

Halle is simply amazing! She is so beautiful, smart (I think it might have to do with who her kindergarten teacher was=) ), a talented dance, so sweet and helpful, has such a cute personality, hard working the list could go on and on basically just an amazing girl. We love you so much Halle! Happy Birthday!

RyLee

2009-08-07T06:23:00.000-07:00

Happy 2nd Birthday RyLee!

RyLee is such a sweetie. She has the most beautiful blue eyes and blond hair. She's always so kind to share her toys with Jaxson when we go to her home. We're glad she's party of our family. We love you RyLee! Happy Birthday!!!!

Swimming Parties

2009-08-06T12:30:00.000-07:00

We've been having fun in the water. Monday we had a swimming party with cousin Brianna and a friend, Ayden. Elizabeth, Anna May (Ayden's mom) and I picked apricots while the kids played in the water. They all seemed to really enjoy each other. Since we were keeping an eye on the kids and climbing in the tree for apricots I didn't get the camera out such a camera slacker I am but it was a great afternoon.

Wednesday we were invited to Aunt Roxanna's house for a lunch/pool party with the Erickson family. They had a super neat swimming pool. Jaxson seemed to enjoy the toy Jeep and toy car/wagon in the garage a lot more then the pool. He's such a fan of anything with wheels. It was such a fun day just letting the kids play, visiting and enjoying the day together. I love days like that. Roxanna made yummy cupcakes that everyone could eat. It's hard to explain what exactly that feels like for me as Jax mommy but lets just say it made my day to go somewhere and have someone take the time to prepare something for my son. Thanks Aunt Roxanna you ROCK and Jaxson and I give you the SUPER THOUGHTFUL award.=)

Today Jaxson and I had Kathryn, Issac, Kalli and Mattix down to Grandma's for a swim party. Kathryn and Issac are visiting from Washington. Kathryn and Kalli are my girl friends from high school. Issac is 2, Mattix turns 2 in September and then Jaxson is almost 18 so they are close in age. It was fun to get caught up in each others lives and to see our sons play together.

Thank Heavens for Little Boys!

Gracie

2009-08-05T07:11:00.000-07:00

Happy 6th Birthday Gracie!

When I think of Graice I think of SPUNK she got lots of it! She is so fun to be around and every time I'm around her I can't help but laugh at the things she does and says. She is so hilarious! She has a very sweet spirit about her and is so very kind. We love you so much Graice! Happy Birthday!

Our Busy Crazy July

2009-08-04T12:46:00.000-07:00

We've been extra busy in July. Plus our computer is having problems staying on for more then 10 minutes and it's been the least of our concern so sadly I haven't been able to blog much. I've missed blogging and reading blogs. Here is a little update on our July......

The first week we went on an Olsen's family campout. Super fun but it rained and rained.

Jaxson had a roasted marshmallow for the first time. He love it!

The whole grandkid group
My brother Greg is so handy specially at camping. He made this to dry us out.

Our 4th of July we just did the parade, family lunch, BBQ and fireworks. Jaxson didn't love the firework but he didn't hate them.

Jaxson has really enjoyed the parades this summer

Being daring and letting Jaxson do a sparkler. He loved it.
Jaxson and cousin Gracie watching the city fireworks together.

The 2nd week of July my family from Texas came. We went to different places in Vernal, had family dinners and just made fun memories. I love every time they come out we have such a great time. Brett also started painting and fixing up 3 of the apartments for our landlord. Such a big job specially when you work all day long and only have the evenings to work. We also went with Brett's family out to SLC for a much needed mini vacation. We went to the zoo, a family BBQ celebrating his cousin returning from a mission and swam in the hotel pool and hot tub. So much fun!

THE ZOO

cousin RyLee and Jaxson
Jaxson's favorite zoo animal--Zebras

The 3rd week of July we started painting our new home. That's rights after 9 years of apartment living we are moving into a home. I'm so excited for our little family. I'll of coarse have to do a post just about our new home when it's "blog worth" but the 3rd week of July was a working week. My dad painted and painted for us, my mom cleaned everything and anything and I painted when I could. It sure is hard to do things like this with a 1 year old. Brett was still busy working and then working on the apartments.

The 4th week of July was moving week. I didn't want to box anything since it wasn't too far of a move so we moved by the arm fulls. My mom and I did this for 4 days. On Thursday Brett and his buddies moved the big things. Since Thursday we've been staying with my parents till our house is ready. Hopefully we'll be in our home soon.

Kaysia

2009-07-09T09:51:00.000-07:00

Happy 5th Birthday Kaysia!

Kaysia is such a sweet happy girl. She has the cutest laugh and she's a super great big cousin on the Erickson side. She is always so excited to see Jaxson and she's so helpful. I can't believe she's turning 5 today. We love you so much Kaysia and are so glad you are apart of our family! Happy Birthday!

Dylan

2009-07-07T06:55:00.000-07:00

Happy 10th Birthday Dylan!

You're one super amazing 10 year old You're such a big help with Jaxson and he just adores being around you. You're an easy going, fun loving, totally amazing baseball playing sweet kid. We love you sooooooo much happy birthday!

My Computer Wiz and Erickson Pictures

2009-07-01T11:06:00.000-07:00

I'm in the mood for something new on our blog. I snapping this picture this morning. After I got Jaxson ready and put him down from the changing table he noticed our computer chair was out and the keyboard and just insisted that he sit in the chair. The second he got in the chair he started moving the mouse around and touching the keyboard just like a wiz. It was adorable. He is getting so big and it's so fun to watch him figure things out. This week he has been saying words and I just love hearing him talk. Monday night when I walked into the bathroom while Brett was finishing up bathing him he said, "I want mama" it's melted my heart and I was so impressed to hear him speak 3 words in a row. Jaxson is also cutting 2 more teeth. He now has 9 teeth in total.

Nothing too big has been going on for us . Brett's working, mowing laws, and doing some side work for our apartment manager. He's busy. Jaxson and I spend our day with a stroller walk, playing outside, playing in the sandbox, swimming, reading stores and visiting Grandma and Grandpa for a 3 wheeler, tractor and wagon ride. I really love our simple summer days.

Brett's uncle gave us a copy of the Erickson family pictures we took on Father's day so I have to post some of them. It's fun having these shots to treasure now and in the future.

Our Erickson Family

Our Family Shot

Brett's parents, Carolee and Darwin

Brett sister, MarShel with the nieces and nephews

Brett's brother Leif, his wife Roxanna and their two kids Kylen and Kaysia

Brett's sister Heidi, her husband Jeff and their two kids: RyLee and Payton

Brett's sister Nicki with her husband Joey

Father's Day

2009-06-21T20:29:00.000-07:00

We had a really nice Father's Day. It seemed like the day just flew by with all that happened. We cooked Brett his favorite breakfast: french toast with apricot syrup, bacon, eggs, milk and orange juice. We surprised or tricked him with his Father's Day gift--so fun. A while ago Brett mentioned while at dinner that he would like to have a leaf blower. He mows a couple of laws on the side. So I of coarse took note of his suggestion for his Father's Day gift. You see November 20th was the day we started dating and sometimes we give each other a gift on that day, then December brings Christmas, January our anniversary, February Valentines, March Brett's birthday, thankfully May I have a brake and then June Father's Day. So by the time Father's Day comes I've been thinking of gift ideas for a couple of months. A week before Father's Day just to see what he said I asked him what he wanted and he gave the great answer, "nothing". Right like I would let a day like Father's Day go by and get him nothing I don't think so. So I got Dr. Pepper and bags of cinnamon bears (he's favorites) and had Jaxson do a card for him and gave him that in the morning when we first woke up. I know he completely thought I took him for real and only got him that for Father's Day which he was completely happy with, he's great like that. But Jaxson and I surprised him with the leaf blower on the kitchen table and he loved it. In fact he had used his Aunt's the day before and liked it so much he took note what kind it was so that he could get the same one. Which made me really happy because when I went to buy the leaf blower there were a few to choose from and I knowing nothing about leaf blowers had hoped I had picked out one he would like. I love surprising Brett with gifts he gets excited over or loves and this was one of them.

The rest of the day was spent at church, taking pictures with the Erickson family and then dinner with my family at Eric and Elizabeth's.

I'm thankful that I have such a great guy to be the father to our Jaxson. Jaxson adores Brett. He gets so excited when he comes home from work. He loves playing with him, having Brett read stories to him, mowing the law on his shoulders and snuggling with him. I always knew Brett would be a really terrific father but it's fun to see it actually happen.

I'm also really thankful for my daddy. He is such a wonderful and caring father. I always know I can go to my dad for anything and that he will always be there to help me. If there is one person that might get Jaxson to pick them over me it would be grandpa. In fact Friday night Jaxson was in Grandpa's arm and we were getting ready to go and as I was trying to get Jaxson he waved good-bye to me. He was disappointed to know that he was leaving with me and not staying with grandpa.

Jaxson and I are so blessed to be surrounded by such great and wonderful men! Here are some pictures of our favorite guys...

Our Summer So Far

2009-06-07T20:11:00.000-07:00

We just took our first summer trip it was out to Grand Junction, CO to visit my brother (Greg) and his kids (Lexie, Gracie and Kole) He has had them for 2 weeks so we thought we would go have some cousin time. Sadly Brett had to stay to work (hated that) but I was able to take my niece Halle and nephew Carston and they were a huge help with Jaxson while driving. We stayed for 5 days and had so much fun. We did too much to blog about every thing but some of the highlights were swimming, riding 4 wheelers, playing at the park, eating Cold Stone 3 of the 5 days (YUMMY!!!), playing with new toys (at least to Jaxson) and just hang out together. I wish things could have stayed the same for my brother and his kids but it was good to go over to his home, have such a fun time and realize that live goes on and there is lots more fun family times to have. Greg is such an amazing father and it's easy to see that his kids just adore him. Thanks brother for letting us come over to have such a great time and letting us be apart of your time with your kids!

We came home and the next day Brett and I traveled out to SLC to attend a PKU insurance meeting. We learned a lot which is awesome I so believe that knowledge is power and like always the best part was just visiting with the families. It was crazy to drive 3 hours sit in a 2 hour meeting and then turn around and drive home but so worth the trip. It's been a while since I went to bed at 1 am thankfully Elizabeth and then Grandpa watched Jaxson for us and wore him out because the next day he sleep till 10:10 am----so nice! Wish that would happen once a week.=)

The rest of the week has just been getting back into our routine and resting up from our travels. Tonight Eric and Elizabeth invited us over to their house for a swim/BBQ party. We had a really great time. Here are some pictures of tonight:

Don't they look so BIG!

Abbie is 1 month old today! She is such a doll!

Our Grand Junction pictures:

As soon as we got there Jaxson found Kole's 4 wheeler. Kole wasn't quit sure about Jaxson riding it himself but LOVED giving him rides.

I was lucky and got to drive around the boys! Thank heaven's for little boys!

We went to this really nice park to play for a while.

Jaxson loved the park. I think he climbed and went down the slide more then anyone!

Where's the best place to go after playing at the park---Cold Stone! I just had to get a picture because this was Jaxson's first time eating there. I LOVE Cold Stone and anytime we go out of town it's a great trip if I manage to get Cold Stone. Well since they are an ice cream store and ice cream isn't healthy for Jax I thought it would be one of those things we wouldn't be able to experience together but thankfully they have sorbet and sorbet is on the okay list of things to eat. Probably sounds crazy to you all reading this but it was so thrilling for me to be able to order Jaxson something from Cold Stone! It was another moment where I found myself thinking wow we are getting to do this and I so thought we weren't going to be able to.

What happens when you've had LOTS of fun and you go for a ride.

Jaxson and Kole took a bath together almost every night we were there. This was Jaxson's first time to have a buddy in the tub. They would bath and then both put on Jaxson good smelling lotion (baby lotion I just love that on kids) and get in their pj's together. It was so fun watching Kole and Jaxson play. They have a lot of the same interest. I hope these two are always best buddies!

Shopping at the City Market. We had to go there a few times and every time Grandma spoiled this two but getting this cart for them to ride in.My dad traveled over as well. It was his birthday and why not come spend it in Grand Junction. It was fun spending the whole birthday with my dad it's be a while since I've been able to do that.

While we were eating dinner my mom asked my dad what he remember about his birthday's when he was little. He said playing games like red rover. The kids had been wanting to play that since I taught them Steal the Flag the night before so we went out to the front and played.

I was also able to find some food items for Jaxson over in Grand Junction. So exciting!!! I love living in Vernal but it's horrible when it comes to find foods other then fruits and vegetables that work for Jax. I'm in hopes someday someone will open a whole food store until then I'll have to keep shopping while in the big cities and ordering online. One of the things I was able to get was chocolate ice cream bars (they are made with coconut milk and are non-dairy) he went to town eating it. I knew right then that they trip was so worth it and anything else was "icing on the cake".
Partying in our PJ's!

Carston

2009-06-03T07:19:00.000-07:00

Happy 6th Birthday Carston!

Carston is one of the funniest kids to be around. He has a vocabulary and concept of language that's amazing for his age. I just love talking and listing to him. He comes up with things that frequently make you think, "and you're how old" and on top of that he has such a fun personality. Happy Birthday Cartson we love you tons!

2009-06-01T08:29:00.000-07:00

Happy 13th Birthday Braden!

We are so glad you were born into our family. You are such an awesome TEENAGER! You were the first one to give me the special role of being an Aunt, something I really love and treasure. It's easy to understand why Jaxson loves being around you, you are so great with kids and the very best big cousin. We love you so much! Happy Birthday!

Growing Up

2009-05-31T10:17:00.000-07:00

LAST SUMMER....
YESTERDAY...
LAST SUMMER.... YESTERDAY...Wow! I took some pictures of Jaxson yesterday down at my parents and while looking at them I remembered taking similar pictures last summer and couldn't get over how much Jaxson has grown.

It was wonderful to get out and do something. Jaxson has been very sick. He started with a cold and then got a stomach bug that last for 7 days. YIKES! I absolutely think watching your child be sick as to be one of the worst things ever not to mention it's so draining specially when it goes on for over a week. And like last month when he had the flu I got sick as well on Wednesday. I was better after a day but it's taken Jaxson a whole week. He is doing much better and I'm so happy not to be cleaning up puck and messy diapers all day long and even during the middle of the night. Oh the joys of being a mom.=)

Here are some more fun moments at Grandpa and Grandma's yesterday:

Attitude

2009-05-21T09:04:00.000-07:00

My mom sent this to me yesterday and I love it. Enjoy!

John is the kind of guy you love to hate. He is always in a good mood and always has something positive to say. When someone would ask him how he was doing, he would reply, 'If I were any better, I would be twins!' He was a natural motivator. If an employee was having a bad day, John was there telling the employee how to look on the positive side of the situation.

Seeing this style really made me curious, so one day I went up and asked him, 'I don't get it! You can't be a positive person all of the time How do you do it?' He replied, 'Each morning I wake up and say to myself, you have two choices today. You can choose to be in a good mood or ... you can choose to be in a bad mood I choose to be in a good mood.' Each time something bad happens, I can choose to be a victim or...I can choose to learn from it. I choose to learn from it. Every time someone comes to me complaining, I can choose to accept their complaining or... I can point out the positive side of life. I choose the positive side of life. 'Yeah, right, it's not that easy,' I protested. 'Yes, it is,' he said. 'Life is all about choices. When you cut away all the junk, every situation is a choice. You choose how you react to situations. You choose how people affect your mood. You choose to be in a good mood or bad mood. The bottom line: It's your choice how you live your life.'

I reflected on what he said. Soon hereafter, I left the Tower Industry to start my own business. We lost touch, but I often thought about him when I made a choice about life instead of reacting to it.

Several years later, I heard that he was involved in a serious accident, falling some 60 feet from a communications tower.. After 18 hours of surgery and weeks of intensive care, he was released from the hospital with rods placed in his back. I saw him about six months after the accident.
When I asked him how he was, he replied, 'If I were any better, I'd be twins..Wanna see my scars?' I declined to see his wounds, but I did ask him what had gone through his mind as the accident took place. 'The first thing that went through my mind was the well-being of my soon-to-be born daughter,' he replied. 'Then, as I lay on the ground, I remembered that I had two choices: I could choose to live or...I could choose to die. I chose to live.' 'Weren't you scared? Did you lose consciousness?' I asked He continued, '...the paramedics were great. They kept telling me I was going to be fine. But when they wheeled me into the ER and I saw the expressions on the faces of the doctors and nurses, I got really scared. In their eyes, I read 'he's a dead man'. I knew I needed to take action.' 'What did you do?' I asked. 'Well, there was a big burly nurse shouting questions at me,' said John. 'She asked if I was allergic to anything 'Yes, I replied.' The doctors and nurses stopped working as they waited for my reply. I took a deep breath and yelled, 'Gravity'' Over their laughter, I told them, 'I am choosing to live. Operate on me as if I am alive, not dead...'

He lived, thanks to the skill of his doctors, but also because of his amazing attitude..... I learned from him that every day we have the choice to live fully.

Attitude, after all, is everything .

Therefore do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about itself. Each day has enough trouble of its own.' Matthew 6:34.

Blog help

2009-05-20T10:21:00.000-07:00

Can anyone give me some blog help? Anyone who knows me knows I'm a daily Good Things Utah fan well I was of coarse watching one day a month or so ago when they had 3 mom's on that were starting blogs about cooking. Well I love new recipes, am into blogging so I thought awesome I'll add them to my blogs I'm following list found on my dashboard. Mistake! They all three along with another site they all contribute to post everyday and I never read their blogs and would like them off of my list. However, I can't seem to figure out how you delete them? Does anyone know? I've went into manage, then found their blog site, went into setting and hit the add/remove link but it doesn't delete their blogs off my list. I've deleted them off my friends and family list as well. I guess the morale of this post is only add blogs you really want to follow.

2009-05-17T21:15:00.000-07:00

Well another weekend has come and gone. I love weekends, who doesn't. Friday Jaxson and I got to spend some time with Brianna. She was so nice and pushed Jaxson around in the wagon for a while. I love watching these two play they just absolutely love each other. Saturday we went up as a family to Dry Fork Cemetery. It's been a tradition in my family to go up there before Memorial Day to clean and take care of the graves. My Grandpa and some of his family are buried there. After we clean the graves we then go for a picnic. We usually have it somewhere in Dry Fork but this year we went to a park near by, Remember the Maine. The kids enjoyed the park and it was fun to eat, sit around and watch our kids play together. After the picnic we went to a gun range to watch Lexie shoot her pink gun she got for her birthday. She did amazing and was able to hit the targets very well. I tried a few times and missed every time. Jaxson loves his Grandpa he's one of his best buddies!
Lexie and Jaxson playing at the park.After we got back Brett and Jaxson were outside doing some things and Jaxson managed to find this puddle. Jaxson of coarse was having a ball getting wet and messy.

Sunday was Grandpa Darwin's 60th birthday! We had a BBQ for him down at Brett's parents house. Here's a picture of MarShel (Brett's sister) taking Kaysia (my niece), Jaxson and I for a ride. Jaxson was in heaven, not only were we eating and staying outside there were 4 wheelers involved and life just doesn't get better then that. We've had another great weekend filled with lots of great memories thanks to family.

Our Abbie

2009-05-14T15:24:00.001-07:00

Here's some more pictures of our Abbie....

My New Love

2009-05-14T07:32:00.000-07:00

Abbie Olsen is finally here! My brother Eric and his wife Elizabeth had their baby yesterday, May 13. I've been waiting to meet and hold this cutie since September when I found out she was coming. She is so super adorable. I could just love on her all day long!

The Weekend

2009-05-13T09:45:00.000-07:00

Friday my mom, Jaxson and I took a rode trip out to SLC to watch my niece Halle compete at Lagoon with her jazz solo routine. She did AMAZING and the judges agreed she won 1st place. She got this huge trophy, a sash, and a crown. Ever since she won the crown I've been bugging her to let me have it since I'm a little bit obsessed with crowns but she wants to keep it, darn it. She did let me wear it though.

Jaxson loved this at the Lagoon.

Saturday was Brett's Grandma Moore's 88th birthday. Aunt Sandra did a party for her in her beautiful yard. It was such a nice day in fact I came home with a sunburn. Jaxson loved being outside for so long and playing.

The birthday girl with her great grandkids that were able to come to her party!

Kaysia, Kylen, Jaxson and RyLee---Jaxson's Erickson cousin's minus baby Payton

Mother's Day

I had a wonderful Mother's Day! Brett got up and played with Jaxson when he woke up so that I could stay in bed as long as I wanted to, such a luxury when you become a mother. Then Jaxson and Brett brought me breakfast in bed and cards from each of them. They had the sweet messages. I usually don't keep cards but I think I'm going to have to keep these. My boys got me a deep freeze. I've never gotten so excited over an appliance in my life. I have really been wanting one for a while since our freeze is packed full. I didn't know how possible it was for us to get one with us living in our apartment but Brett got one that fits perfectly on our little deck. I just love it and am so thankful to have one. I guess you know you're grown up when things like freezers just make you super happy.=)

We spent the afternoon with Brett's mom, Carolee. We made her lunch. It was fun to do something special just for her. She does a lot of cooking for the family so it was fun to do it for her. We had BBQ orange coconut salmon and chicken, potatoes, fruit, broiled broccoli (my favorite way to do vegies right now), a jell-o salad and then a fresh strawberry pie. It was yummy. I just think Brett's an amazing husband and any amazing husband had a VERY amazing mother.

I took Jax off of his favorite toy at Grandma's for this picture he wasn't too happy about that. Carolee is sporting her cute apron we gave her for Mother's Day.

We then spent the evening with my family. We had another amazing meal and just sat outside and enjoyed the rest of the day. Jaxson gave Grandma some new sand toys and he really enjoyed the sandbox even when he was the only kid in it.

Elizabeth, my mom sporting her apron, Danielle and myself--The mommies of our family!

It was a really nice day. I'm glad there is one day out of the year where I can be spoiled as a mother and we can spoil our mothers for all the do for us throughout the year. I'm so thankful I'm getting to experience motherhood, what a fun journey. I'm also very thankful I was sent to such a special amazing women to be my mother. I have and continue to learn so many things from my mom.

Lexie

2009-05-07T08:32:00.001-07:00

Happy 10th Birthday Lexie!

Today my sweet niece turns 10 wow how time flies. Lexie is such a beautiful person inside and out. She has this amazing quality of recognizing and caring for others. We were able to celebrate Lexie's birthday with her last weekend and like always when we get together we had so much fun! Lexie wanted to put her own candles on her cake and while doing so asked me if she could put one in Jaxson's low pro cupcake I thought that was so sweet of her to think about him and want his cupcake to be part of her birthday cake. What an amazing and thoughtful 10 year old. We love you so much Lexie! Happy Birthday!

Jaxson's New Cousin

2009-05-04T14:42:00.001-07:00

Yesterday, May 3 Jaxson's new cousin Payton came to earth. Brett's sister, Heidi and her husband Jeff are the lucky parents of this angel. We were able to see Payton just hours after she was born. I forgot how precious a newborn baby is there is just something special about those newborns. We love you Payton and are glad you are safely here and can't wait to get to know you better!