Ryan * Joanie * Jaxson

The Serengeti Resort

2012-02-16T08:15:00.009-06:00

For Christmas, we received a voucher for an animal tour at the Serengeti resort, about 30 minutes north of our house (thanks to ryan's parents!). Last Saturday we drove up and went on our own little safari. We drove around a golf cart and attempted to feed the animals that were there (camel, zebra, deer, giraffe, ostritch, Kudu, etc.) It was so much fun (other than the fact it was 46 degrees outside and we didn't dress quite warm enough...)

Jaxson LOVED driving the golf cart. He has been enjoying the movie "Cars" lately, and has also been playing a driving nintendo-type game. So he thought this was awesome! (check out the movie at the bottom)
The first animal we met was this camel --- He was very gentle and loved the food.
While we were feeding the camel, I looked back and saw this guy. I snapped a quick picture and then went back to taking photos of Ryan and Jaxson feeding the camel. I then felt something bite my back. I literally started screaming (not out of pain, but of suprise and fear). The zebra then bit my jacket and tried to pull me out of the golf cart. I am still screaming and trying to hold on for dear life. I guess this is what they ment when they said "be careful of the zebra and ostrich." I managed to get my jacket back and shew the animal away, while I am yelling to Ryan to drive away. Traumatic .... haha. Once we got away, I was laughing histerically - I got attacked by a zebra! Never thought that would happen to me.

The ostritch ... "don't feed him from your hand" we were told. We would throw the food a ways from the cart, but he kept coming closer and closer, so I would freak out and tell Ryan to drive! I was still scared from the whole zebra incident.

Yaaaa, my favorite, the giraffe.

Jaxson didn't want to look at me long enough to take a picture- too much fun!

Giant Kudu's. Didn't want to try and feed these guys, they looked too dangerous.

The camel is the only one we could feed for most of our trip.

Happy Family

One last attempt to feed the giraffe was a success. YES! I love feeding giraffe's. I had almost the entire bag of food left, so I got to feed him for a while - awesome! Such a cute animal :)

We saw these cute lemur's on the way out.

This is my jacket where the zebra tried to eat me. Dirty mouth!

A quick video of Jaxson driving the cart .... love this kid!

33 weeks

2012-02-06T15:55:00.002-06:00

Just an update on the pregnancy ... I am 2 days shy of 33 weeks, and I am still feeling good. My baby is measuring pretty big (90th % -- is already 5 ish lbs). Her head is measuring really big ... yikes! We finally got a profile of this little girl today (she always is hiding and has her hands in front of her face). Can't wait to meet her in just a few short weeks!

A Highlight of Jaxy Bear

2012-01-30T13:42:00.008-06:00

So I have been kinda neglecting the blog lately, mainly because I am trying to get my etsy shop/new headbands selling (not happening too well, so if you want to be kind, I would love you forever if you had a link from your blog to my shop .... JoMazingaccessories.etsy.com)

Anyway ... I haven't been taking a lot of photos either ... oops :( I did realize though that after Jaxson turned 2, I didn't really do a good post highlighting him and all he is up to these days ... So here is our little man, at 25 months :)

** He weighs 29 lbs (65% ish) and is 35" tall (70% ish)

** He can count to 10 (with a little help from us, he often skips 3 & 7)

** He is learning the alphabet really well (either he will repeat what we say, or he will tell us which letter comes next)

**He knows the colors blue, red, yellow, orange, green, purple, pink, gold, silver, white, black, brown and can say all of them (he just started saying the "y" on yellow)

**He knows these shapes: heart, star, circle, square, triangle and is learning rectangle and diamond

**He is talking so much and is putting complete sentences together (5-6 words). I am so impressed at how well he is talking, and how well he understands almost everything we say.

**Still a climber ... he recently learned how to climb up the kitchen gate and get on the counter.... hence this photo. guess he wanted "cannies" (candies)
**His favorite food is still French Fries (dip dips) with "red sauce" (ketchup). He also requests brown cookies (oreos) and milk quite frequently. He also loves apples, cheese, cereal, blueberries, oranges, meat (hamburger or chicken), chicken nuggets, juice, and candies.

**He loves going to nursery after Sacrament Meeting on Sundays. When the final prayer is done, he yells "AMEN!" and then gets all excited to go play in nursery.

**He still LOVES basketball, but also knows baseball, soccer, football, volleyball - and knows what to do with each type of those balls (throw, kick, throw, bump).

**Still loves Mickey Mouse Club House the most, but also is developing a love for Cars - the original movie. We rented Cars 2 for him, and he couldn't take more than about 30 minutes (which I understand, he doesnt just sit and watch tv - he is so active).

**He loves going "beep beep" with the keys -- aka he pushs lock on our car key several times so that it honks the horn.

**We got him a crib tent, and now his sleeping habits are back to normal -- HOORAY!! (11-12 hours at night, and 1.5-3 hour nap). Happy Mommy!

I could go on forever, but I will stop -- Jaxson has brought so much happiness and joy into our lives, we feel so blessed that he is our son. We love him so much!!

Constructive Critisim Wanted

2012-01-24T14:22:00.002-06:00

hey all, I was totally expecting to have lots of buys from etsy with my new headbands .... yep, nothing! These flowers are priced lower than the same/similar ones on etsy. I am just trying to figure out what I can do to get more etsy sales. If you have any advice for me, please let me know! thanks :)

New Etsy Shop Items!

2012-01-18T15:07:00.005-06:00

I just recently posted some of these cute headbands on my etsy shop. I am excited about them and hope they sell well. I would love your help if you don't mind spreading the word about them (facebook, blog, friends, etc.) The shop location is:

JoMazingaccessories.etsy.com

The awesome thing is ... I have so many different colors of flowers and headbands, you can basically create anything you want. I just have a few different styles posted (1, 2, 3 flowers) but you can choose any color combos you want.
Thanks again Janica for taking photos of your cute little girl! If you live in Utah, she is a great photographer!

See ... lots of different flower colors! And I am getting lots more options for elastics too. Right now, in the thicker band I have black, white, purple, navy. And in the skinny I have white, black, and light pink.

This one is an ivory lace flower ... and I have lots more colors to choose from (black, white, red, light blue, light pink, light purple, and light yellow). Once I have a bit more time, I will make them and post them in my shop too.

Thanks again! love you guys :)

Our Christmas Vacation

2012-01-08T13:40:00.016-06:00

We had a wonderful Christmas vacation in South Carolina, but we are now back to "regular" life and mostly settled. We cleaned the house, did all the laundry, and did some major de-junking this week. I finally have a little bit of time to blog this long post -- there are a ton of pictures- be ready....

Jaxson wearing his Santa (or HO HO HO hat as he calls it) hat
First day in South Carolina -- he loves to draw with chalk on the sidewalk. He learned how to say "nike basketball" while we were there. the kid is obesssed
We went to the zoo the day before Ryan got here. Jax is with Erika (Tee Tah), Jordan, and Jordan's girlfriend- Christine.

There was a kangaroo park -- so cool.

brave man riding a tiger

playing bingo at Grandma Riley's house

Christmas Eve, opening Pj's

Christmas Morning

Each couple got matching pj's

Jax insisted on putting on his new basketball outfit from G&G and then proceeded to playwith his new BYU basketball (thanks jordan & christine!) in the middle of the room/present opening. At least he has good form right?

We visited Papa (Ryan's grandpa) later that day.... 4 generation photo of good looking men

The couples (minus G&G - thanks for watching Jaxson) went on a day trip to Charleston. It is a beautiful city and it was so nice to have some time away for ourselves.

what a good looking man!

We stopped by the beach

and an old boat right outside the beach. this picture is awesome

we also went bowling --- Jaxson loved it

he even ran down the lane a couple of times when we looked away for a split second. the kid is fast!

Ryan helped Jaxson bowl really well - his score was close to mine both games

loves with Tee Tah and Grandma (go-go). Jaxson played a lot with these ladies over the break- esp. Erika. thanks for helping out so much with him!

check out that form

we went on a trip to the state museum. It was pretty cool - we have fun looking around!

giant shark. Jaxson's "cheese" face (whenever we get out the camera. guess he is trained well eh)

fun family photo

gigantic tire. how fun would it be to roll in this down a hill?!

how does he do that? magic.

Jaxson insisted on having a snack break while we were there. guess he was starving.

We celebrated Jaxson's 2nd birthday while we were there. He and Daddy sported their BYU gear, because BYU was playing in their bowl game- which they won in an exciting end of game play.

We went to Chic-Fil-A for lunch, as it is one of Jaxson's favorite places to eat. Dip dip!

Then we came home and ate some birthday cake - Jax actually ate more cake than frosting, I was quite shocked. He even says "I'm 2!" when you ask him how old he is. (he has been doing it since he was about 18 months old, I couldn't ever get him to say I'm 1!)

I'm 2

Opening some presents

playing outside like a manly-man

On New Year's Eve we went over to a family friend's house and lite fireworks. Jaxson thought it was pretty cool - especially the sparklers... which he almost lite Grandma's hair on fire. He did successfully burn a hole in his coat.

One of my favorite photos ever! So the Low side of my family is famous for being able to COMPLETLY plug our noses with our upper lips (comes in handy when we are swimming). Well, I love how Jaxson and daddy are doing it too.

watching the fireworks.

The day daddy left, he played with Jax in the choo-choo train. cute photo of these guys

Thats it! haha, told you it was going to be long. We had a great vacation and enjoying spending time with family :) Here is to a great 2012!

Merry Christmas!

2011-12-18T16:03:00.006-06:00

We have had a fun and exciting past week. We went to Sea World, a ward Christmas party, work party, and took the elders (one from my lil' town of Cardston) out for dinner, etc... Here are the photos we've taken since our last post.

Jaxson, the studly little man he is.
I don't remember if I mentioned this, but Jaxson learned how to get out of his crib. blaaaahhh. Well, sometimes he won't stay in his toddler bed, and when I go in to his room to check on him, this is what I find. silly boy
Before Sea World, we stopped by the hospital for their big party in the parking lot. Kids got to see Santa, there were lots of vendors, and bounce houses etc... We saw this State Farm bear and told Jax to go stand by him. Well, Jax stood in front of the bear, then backed up till he right next to the bear, and then gave us a big Cheese! We thought it was quite a funny situation, because Ryan's Dad works for a different insurance company.

waiting in line for the bounce house.

Jaxson and his first experience driving a real fire truck.

At Sea World ... Jaxson loved the Sesame Street Show.

Jaxson waving and cheering for Elmo.

Seeing Cookie Monster towards the end of the performace. All the sudden, all the kids from the audience ran up to the stage, so we took Jax up too :)

One morning this week, Jaxson and I played baseball with wooden spoons, a tennis ball, and his safari hat. It was awesome!

Jaxson says "ready, set, go" and then I throw the ball to him and he hits it (or trys to anyway)

the same morning, he also pulled out the double paci. this kid is insane! haha :)

At our ward Christmas party -- Jaxson loves Santa. HO HO HO

We had a fun date night at Ryan's work party. Beautifully decorated, great food, danced with my hubby, no Jaxson to worry about -- it was an AWESOME night!

Thanksgiving & A Family Week

2011-12-06T14:49:00.018-06:00

We've had a busy (but very fun!) past couple of weeks. After we got back from Utah, it was Thanksgiving week. We took Jaxson to Bass Pro Shop to get pictures with Santa, but the wait was 1.5 hrs ... so we played on the Merry-go-round and other games instead.

Jaxson riding the bear ... rooaaarrrhh
playing a hunting game. I think this picture is just precious!
they had pretty Christmas decorations all over the gigantic store

what Jaxson wants for Christmas ....

Jaxson saying "ROAR" in response to the question, "what does a lion say?"

Our Thanksgiving spread. For Ryan, Jaxson and I, I made ... turkey, turkey gravy, rolls, broccoli salad, mashed potatoes, sweet potato casserole, green bean casserole, and stuffing. Yes, we had thanksgiving dinner for a week.

The Monday after Thanksgiving, Julie and Claire came to stay with us for a few days (brian was there for one night too!). We really enjoyed spending time with them! We made sugar cookies to decorate on Monday night --- we didn't get a lot of photos because both Jaxson and Claire were ready for bed! Jax about to take a bit of frosting

The kids drove the car(t) at HEB

We went to the kiddie friendly park a few times and Claire and Jax loved it. Jaxson now points out all the slides in the books he is reading

We went to the bounce house at the mall, but of course Jaxson's favorite thing was the basketball archade game. Notice the ball - he really does have a good shot.

Claire shooting some hoops

Jaxson loved this slide (after we coaxed him a lot to go up it- then he kept saying more!)

We went to the park again .... Love this photo of Jaxson

doing chin ups

Jaxson and Claire thought that getting water squirted into their mouths was the best thing ever. It was pretty fun to watch - they would both open their mouths while the other one was getting water. Julie told Jaxson it was basketball water, so he thought it was the coolest thing ever.

Tortue? Maybe. We thought it would be fun to let the kids walk around the kiddie pool. Reminded me of Waterton lake water. brrrrr. They thought it was pretty fun, until they each feel down and went wide-eyed because it was freezing! So fun.

after falling down. straight to a warm bath...

trying to get one last photo of them. I told Jax to give Claire a hug --- he has been doing this quick side version lately.

Just 2 hours after we dropped Julie & Claire off at the airport, Ryan's parents flew into town for Ryan's grad school graduation. Papa and Jaxson in Santa's big chair

Jaxson wants to ride this everytime we go to HEB. Luckily grandma had 2 quaters for him.

We took Jax to play at McDonalds when it was rainy outside. He thought this piano slide was pretty neat. Actually the whole play place was pretty awesome - let's just say we will be visiting this McDonalds in the future...

We went back to Bass Pro Shop and saw Santa. Is it weird that I am wearing short sleeves, shorts, and flip flops in December? Lucky for me, it has actually cooled down quite a lot this week!

HO HO HO

On Saturday morning, we drove to Austin for Ryan's University of Texas graduation. We are so proud of him and all he has accomplished! He did a great job on his thesis and he has a wonderful job- I appreciate and love him so very much!

Jaxson being silly during the ceremony

Jax thought Ryan's tassel was pretty cool

So proud of all your hard work hunny!

Proud parents

Handsome graduate

Walking to the reception after the ceremony. love my boys!

After our time in Austin, we drove a longer way home. We went though Burnet. Its a small town, but one of the churches there puts on this "Bethlahem" scene. They basically recreate the scene of Bethlahem at the time of Christ's birth. It was so neat to walk around and see everything they did- it was spectacular!

Jaxson petting a goose.

Roman soliders

riding a chariot

petting a camel

the navitity scene. so awesome! I am so grateful for Jesus Christ and what he has done for all mankind. Because of his life and sacrifice for us, all have the ability to repent and live with him and our families again.

Christmas photo

Jaxson likes to put his arm around both Ryan and I (super cute and I love it). Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays to all!

Trip to Utah

2011-11-25T20:57:00.009-06:00

Last Wednesday, Jax and I headed to Utah for my brother's wedding (Ryan came thursday night). It was good to see some friends and to spend time with my family. I loved the cooler weather, and Jaxson loved the snow. He kept saying "snow! snow!" Maybe we will get lucky here and it will snow.... Yah right - it was almost 80 degrees today, on black friday! blahhh

Well here is the little man himself sporting a cute moutain man shirt.
Jax playing with his cute cousin Claire. She is only 9 weeks younger than him, so it is fun because they are in the same stage of life. She will even be visiting us in a few days, so we are super excited about that!
Me and my sisters. Karen (left) is a sophmore at BYU, and Julie (right) is living in Wisconson (her daughter is Claire)

and one with our Mom

singing twinkle twinkle little star

This is how Jaxson eats nerds (those little tiny hard candies). You put them in your hand, and then he grabs your hand and shoves them in his mouth. super funny (we found out about this at halloween)

Little stud getting ready to go to the wedding

I love this photo. What a handsome and wonderful man I married!

The happy couple coming out of the temple. Robbie is 2 years younger than me, so we were pretty tight growing up. I am so happy for him and to have Cammie join our family.

Jaxson playing with his cousins the last night (it was a really short trip ... and even shorter for some)

The favorite toy? An air matteress.

The grandkids who were there. From L to R. Claire, Zach, Jax, Kara, Kate

With Papa and Bama.

Jaxson loves to give hugs- really tight squeezy ones. Sometimes he even pulls his partner to the ground (well, that is if he is hugging someone smaller or a non-suspecting victim). I actually find it quite cute when he hugs his cousins or people his size, even if he is a bit agressive with it. I think Claire was caught a little off guard ... what do you think?

It was a super fun weekend, wish we could have spent more time with our family. I love you all and miss you bunches~!

Basketball: His way of Life

2011-11-14T18:52:00.003-06:00

As many of you already know, Jaxson is obsessed with basketball. You may think that we have been "training" him often and trying to really impound basketball into his brain. Not true actually, although Ryan and I both really enjoy the sport -- more so than any other. When Jax turned 1, he received his basketball hoop from his Grandparents as a present. When he was that young, yes we encouraged him to put the ball in the net. When he started speaking, the words he learned were in this order ..."Dada, ball, basketball." Yes, as a 13-14 month old, he was saying a 3 syllable word. crazy kid.

Well, to this day, he says basketball tons each day. He is always playing with the basketball & hoop, and as soon as Dada comes in the door, he yells "BASKETBALL!" instead of "Dada!" like he use to say. He often points and says "sit" on the ground so we can watch him shoot and dunk some hoops. He definitly knows the difference between shoot, dunk, pass, and dribble.

In the morning, I ask him what he wants to wear, and he says basketball! He knows which shirts are basketball related and he wants to wear them all the time. It is funny, but he really just obsessed with basketball (and nike for that matter --- he sees the nike check and immediatley associates it with basketball).

Get this, he even asks us to turn on youtube so he can watch videos of basketball! His favorite is the Derrik Rose bull commercial. Jax also loves putting on our basketball shoes and wearing them around the house- especially when he shoots hoops. I love this kid and he cracks me up.

It's a .....

2011-11-07T08:20:00.002-06:00

GIRL! We are super excited that we will have one of each gender now. Also, Ryan can't tease me too bad for all the lil' baby girl clothes I have been collecting for the past couple of years haha. So for those of you who have had girls, does this ultrasound look like what a girl looks like? I think I am just nervous next time the dr. will say, "oops, the baby is actually a boy." It has happened to my friend recently!
A couple of tiny feet. Tiny is realtive I guess. Our baby is measuring 90% for size right now. Which my doctor seemed slighly shocked/worried, but then I told her Ryan is 6'7" and I am 5'11" and she was "oh, ok." Yes, we are big people.

baby profile.

Jaxson celebrated the baby girl news by eating a pink frosting cupcake. He liked it a lot (the frosting that is).

Just a few pics of Jax. After eating ravioli. I think it was on or right around Halloween, and because of his orange face, we called him our little pumpkin.

one giant snowman we saw while shopping with our friends. we are stoked for Christmas!

17 weeks prego

2011-10-25T18:31:00.002-05:00

Well, I am now 18 weeks prego, but this was me at 17 weeks. We are really excited to find out the gender of our baby in just 1 week. Can't wait!
Morning sickness has been over for a few weeks now (hooray!) but the past 24 hours have been rough ... I think I have some quick virus. Hope it is over soon! Last night I threw up so much/hard that I popped several blood vessels in my face ... now I have lots of red freckles everywhere. crazy!! has that ever happened to you?

Halloween Party

2011-10-21T21:58:00.008-05:00

Moooooooo. It is one of Jaxson's favorite words/animal sounds. So we found this cute cow costume @ costco for him. We decided to have a couple of friends over this weekend for an early Halloween party -- the kids love it!

I love how snuggly and huggy Jaxson is. He knows how to make mommy feel good!

Happy cow!

Halloween decor

Balloons with glow sticks in them. They actually didn't really glow though. Oh well - the balloons are fun.

festive cupcakes

a jello brain ..... oooooohhhhh

Jaxson's friends. the one on the right always asks if she can babysit Jaxson. its so cute cuz she is 9.

Some of the food ... goat cheese, garlic, onion, and roast beef crustini's, pepperoni pizza, homemade spinach/alfredo, chicken, and tomato pizza, turkey meatballs and a creamy dipping sauce ....

fishing for treats

bean bag toss for treats

Next friday we have our ward chili cook off and trunk or treat .... looking forward to it!

Pinterest & Halloween

2011-10-19T15:11:00.007-05:00

So I jumped on the "pinterest.com" bandwagon about 2 weeks ago ... I love that site! I love all the great food ideas, decoration/holiday ideas, kiddo ideas etc. It is awesome! I has maybe keep me up a couple of times at night, thinking of all the things I wanted to make ....

Well, here are a few of the projects I have made so far. This is my Halloween tulle wreath -- purple, green, orange, and black tulle. I liked the way it turned out :)
Ok, this one isn't pinterest really, more just the fact that I got out some of our fall decorations .... Jaxson is learning the word "pumpkin." He loves to point them out.
Halloween filled Jars, painted pumpkin, and candy corn

had an old picture frame laying around, was going to donate it. But then I decided to spruce it up. That is one of the things I love about pinterest -- they have so many good suggestions for things you would normally throw away or donate.

flower/pom pom jewelry

Mummy dogs

Ry and I had fun painting these lanturns one night. They each have a small light to flicker when we turn out the lights. Any guesses one who painted which ones? (hint: ryan painted 2 of them)
I have also tried some recipes like... chocolate chip cookies, orange chicken, chow mein, cream puff cake, pumpkin oatmeal, homemade fruit snacks, energy balls, etc... Any who, if you haven't enetered the pinterest world (and you are a girl), you should really check it out!

One last non-pinterest related photo ... Jaxson has been wanting to just chill and watch tv before naps and bedtime instead of reading stories. Cute lil' guy.

Oct in Texas

2011-10-13T13:41:00.006-05:00

2 weekends ago we decided to go visit our local food truck park. I am a fan of food trucks (i think. maybe it's more like I enjoy watching "the great food truck race" on food network). We had a fun time -- Jaxson loved the little puppy sitting in front of one of the food trucks, and he loved playing on the playset they had set up.

Ryan had some Korean BBQ and it was yummy.
I tried some middle eastern kinda thing. I was alright, but wouldn't get it again.
Jaxson playing in the sand.

doing some superman training

one day last week, Jaxson came into my room to find me and he looked like this. HAHA, I just started laughing and grabbed the camera. He was trying so hard to get out of it .... not sure how he got into it either!

so proud

Last Saturday we decided to head on down to Seaworld for some of the Halloween festivities. They had lots of colored pumpkin and other skelaton decorations everywhere.

Taking a picture with Jack. I was too creeped out to be in the picture. Jaxson definitly was not, and he even said bye to Jack when we left.

In the scary forest. Well, we went before it got dark and all the creepy people were in there trying to scare everyone.

Waiting in line to see cookie monster. Jax was pretty excited. He loves cookies!

Contrary to Jaxson's face, he enjoyed the ride a lot.

These sea lions were pretty cool. There were a few baby ones swimming around in the water that sounded like goats when they made a sound. It was pretty amusing.

Well thats been life the last little bit. Except for that I am now totally into pinterest.com. I have been making fun halloween decorations and lots of yummy foods from there too. I will post pics soon

wanna win some etsy stuff ??

2011-10-11T09:17:00.003-05:00

A week or so ago, a girl asked me if I wanted to sponser a giveaway on her blog. I said yes, and you can win too. The prize is a black satin flower, black and white bow, and black headband --- super cute! Go ahead and enter, and I hope you win! good luck :)

anna-sendmeasong.blogspot.com/2011/10/300-followers-giveaway.html

a few more SC pics

2011-10-08T15:05:00.008-05:00

So I realized I had didn't download all the photos from our trip onto my computer -- oops. Well, I downloaded them today and found these ones I also wanted to post about...

Jax playing in a puddle. Don't see those in Texas very much. (we actually have been getting a little rain, which is great and much appreciated!)
Jaxson's sense of humor
w/ grandma at the zoo

we went to one of my fav. places to eat in SC --- "California Dreaming." This is Jax eating a lemon. He always makes funny faces, but then just keeps eating. I guess he likes it?

He ate a lot of fries that weekend

Me & the California Dreaming salad. Turkey, Ham, Bacon, Hard-boiled egg, Cheese, tomatoes with a honey mustard and hot bacon dressing. delish! I am going to re-create it tomorrow for dinner :)

Jax had a lot of tubs at the grandparent's house ...

G.Grandma took us to chic-fil-a - yum! more fries for Jax haha

Jax and Grandma playing on the equipment

These kids started dancing and falling down ... Jax joined right in - it was quite hilarious~!

Jaxson also ate a lot of cookies that weekend. Notice what else is on his plate? Yep, leftover chic-fil-a fries

At church on Sunday. We had a fabulous lesson in Relief Society. It was from a talk given by Richard G Scott -- check it out. http://lds.org/general-conference/2011/04/the-eternal-blessings-of-marriage?lang=eng&query=eternal+families+richard+(name%3a"Richard+G.+Scott"

Mini tub in the sink -- look at those eyes!!

South Carolina Trip

2011-10-04T14:20:00.017-05:00

Last week, Ryan went to Utah for work, so Jaxson and I decided we would go see Ryan's parents in South Carolina. It was a fun trip and we got to see a lot of rain! (which is a big deal right now, since Texas has been having major droughts!). Here are some pics of the trip (in a random order...)

Jaxson playing basketball out in the yard. He was passing the ball to Grandma - who was also taking the picture. He has a good arm!
Running out and meeting Great-Grandma.
Begging to go outside and play basketball. One day, we'll have our own little basketball area outside so he can play all day. And he is wearing grandma's basketball shoes. Jaxson associates anything Nike with Basketball. He recognizes the symbol and shouts "basketball!" whenever he sees it.

Playing blocks with Grandpa.

Singing and playing the piano. Whenever we ask Jaxson to sing, he says "LA la la la" - its pretty cute. Especially during sacrament meeting & when he is singing really loud. haha

Trying out the new golf set. He would swing those clubs very hard - and not in a golf way. He would just swing and wack at the ball (in all directions) until he hit it. We had to be a good distance away from him so we wouldn't get hit.

Playing in this awesome train toy.

Ah the life. Toys, Tv, Food ...

Playing on Great Grandma's lap -- cute picture of them!

Jax thought this little bike outside was awesome. In a few more months, he will probably be able to petal himself!

In the meantime, I will push him...

This kid is pretty smart with his knowledge of balls. If you give him a soccer ball, he kicks it. A football, he throws it or if you hold it for him, he kicks it. A basketball, he shoots it.

Chalk in the backyard.

Fun time with the Grandma's!

Jaxson loves animals -- esp. dogs and cats. He thought feeding Puddley treats was a hoot.

We went to a fun inflatable play place which Jax normally loves, but once he saw the archade basketball game, he wouldn't really go on the inflatables unless we dragged him in there. I even bribed him with taking on of the basketballs from the game and throwing it into the inflatables. Didn't work as well as I had hoped...

Grandma trying to keep him jumping. He wanted the basketball game.

Grandpa took him down the slide

Ok the basketball game. Jaxson did really well -- usually scoring about 7 out of 8, AND the basketball hoop was moving side to side. We had people stop and watch because he was doing so good.

We also went to the zoo. Here is a picture of one of my favorite animals there .... next time I will have to feed them.

But we did feed the lorokeets. Jax was kinda scared of them - probably because if you try and touch them, they snap at you.

Jaxson thought milking this cow was pretty cool. He loves to say the MOOOOO sound.

goats

He loves washing his hands. Which is a good thing. But, when he runs the water and just plays in it, it drives me insane. Biologists hate wasting water ....being silly

What a poser! haha, I love it. Jax thought this gorilla was funny -- he was doing poses just like him.

Brave kid. It's hard to tell, but the gorilla is actually facing the camera. I went right up face to face with the gorilla ... after 2 seconds I had to back away because I was scared he was going to punch the glass or something ...

Picture for Ryan. He likes the crocs/aligartors. Jax is trying to feed the gator some water - how nice.

trying to pose by the bears ... Jax wanted to pop my cheeks instead.

keeping the animals hydrated again

Jaxson's first taste of cotton candy (I think). He liked it, but not as much as I thought he would. I didn't mind, I just ate the whole bag :)

Helping to get ready for the day.

getting some yummy frozen yogert

crazy rain storm the day before we left

Just a taste of Jaxon's dancing abilities. We will try and get a better photo soon.

A day in the life of Jaxson

2011-09-19T15:01:00.004-05:00

I apologize, I ment to have this post up a few days ago, but the computer wasn't cooperating with me. I haven't taken many photos recently, but here is what we have...

I feel so lucky ... the last month or so, Jaxson has been sleeping into 8 or 9am. Because I am prego and am also tired, I just sleep until he gets up -- which is fabulous! Well, once Jaxson gets up, he does his sign language for food. So get him a small bowl with dry cereal, craisons, pretzels, or something like that. Then I turn on mickey mouse, dinosaur train, or seaseme street and he sits in his red chair and just chills. I am usually on the computer checking emails, facebook, blog, etsy. Then Jaxson comes up to me with his empty bowl and asks for more. So I fill it back up. This happens for about 1-2 hours each morning. Then we procede to get ready to go to the gym. It is an awesome life! (for both of us, that is)
Jaxson's new favorite thing is "cookies." He says it all the time, and will get mad if he doesn't get cookies before the main meal. We usually have to get him to eat "x# of bites" before he can have a cookie --- he doesn't quite understand that, but usually after 15 mins or so, we can convince him to eat a few more bites.
My sister Julie recently told me that her little girl, who is 2 months younger than Jax, has been loving eating corn on the cob. So we tried it with Jaxson, and he loves it too! I just have to keep an eye on him, or else he will pull out the corn holder and hurt himself.

Couldn't resist. Such a cute sleeper. This morning he even insisted wearing his PJ shirt out visiting teaching and to the gym. I managed to get another shirt on him, but after 5 minutes of crying, I figured it wasn't worth it and put his PJ shirt back on.

Once again, this is the morning for Jax. TV, food, chair, drink. repeat.

This shorts were just a little big for him. Only 24 months though I think. Anyway, he was trying to walk around and hold them up - I thought it was pretty cute. gangsta jax!

He got an awesome new shirt from G&G Harbor. He loves this Mickey Shirt. And he recently started saying the word "Minnie" - hasn't quite figured out Mickey yet, but thats ok!

Sad Photo! Once in a while, Ryan comes home at lunch. Jaxson loves his daddy and get REALLY sad when he leaves. This was after 20 mins or so of crying. He finally just laid on the floor and did nothing ...

Announcement ....

2011-09-08T13:45:00.003-05:00

Just wanted to tell you all ..... That we are expecting a Baby! We are due approx March 30th 2012. I am currently 11 weeks along and doing pretty good (excited to start 2nd trimester though!)

this is just flash back of our lil' Jaxson when he was a newborn.

My Etsy Shop is Here!!

2011-08-31T12:34:00.001-05:00

So I finally got everything done and uploaded to my new etsy shop! Feel free to check it out and tell your friends about it! thanks :)

http://www.etsy.com/shop/jomazingaccessories

Happy 5 Year Anniversary!!

2011-08-29T12:35:00.007-05:00

Just wanted to say happy 5 year Anniversary to my wonderful Husband and Best Friend Ryan. It seems crazy that it has already been 5 whole years. We love each other so much and we are exciting for the next 5 years of life.

this is us coming out of the temple for the first time as a married couple

We went out for a delicious brazillian churrascaria lunch of friday -- so yummy! On Sunday, I him his favorite breakfast casserole (sausage, hashbrowns, sour creaam, onions, cheese, etc). For Sunday dinner, we ate sweet and sour chicken wings (the ones my mom makes once a year on New Year's Eve), potatoes, and tomato/red onion/fresh mozzerella stacks drizzled with balsamic vinegar. Dessert was nutella and marshmellow pasty pockets. so good.

Then Ryan suprised me with an amazing pro 600 series Kitchen Aid (i have been wanting one for ever). so sweet of him! His ping pong table I ordered him is on its way -- its gonna be fun to play that! And to top it all off, we are eating at Outback Steakhouse tonight for dinner.

Awesome weekend!

Sea World

2011-08-23T14:21:00.004-05:00

We went to Sea World last weekend (we decided to buy season passes) and had a blast. We spent most of our time in the "Bay of Play" which is the kiddie splash pool/playground area. Jax loves it, and we don't mind because it is so hot outside, the water feels good.

We found bigbird and got a photo with him. Check out that little kid in the background - haha
Waiting in line to run through the large stream of water.
just went through

They also have a kiddie merry-go-round. Jax thought it was great.

happy boy

he is actually clapping here

Jaxson's newest thing is doing handstands on the couch. Daddy joined in and we took some photos.

I love these boys!

just a video of the merry-go-round

July 8-Aug 12

2011-08-14T17:51:00.017-05:00

In my last post, I said I wasn't going to post these photos ... well aparently I lied. Here are a few of the photos we took in the last month.

Chic fil A (my fav. fast food) had a cow appreciation day, so everyone who dressed up like a cow got a free meal. I can't resist their original chicken sandwhich, and waffle fries?! delicious! Thanks Ryan for being a good sport and dressing up with us!

Jaxson and I flew up to Canada to see the family. We really enjoyed our time there! This is in my parents backyard --- Jaxson loved playing in these toy cars, with the basketball hoop, the playset, and the new trampoline. awesome place for kids to play!

We visited my Grandma & Grandpa Low -- Jax loved playing with the toys at their house. esp the hungy hungry hippos game

Grandpa is such a hoot. he always entertains the little ones!

We had a quick but violent hail storm one evening. These are some of the hail chunks I picked off of the lawn. Just for size reference, there is a quater and a bobby pin to compare the hail to.

Jaxson and I went to Amelia's (& Justin) house while Mom shopped at Costco. We had fun chatting and the kids enjoyed playing in the backyard and eating popsicles. This is Kara and Jax just swinging away.

Don't think less of me. I think this was Jaxson's first real experience with a popsicle (haha and we live in texas!) I was suprised he actually liked it. He seems to shy away from cold and hot things, but once he got past the inital coldness of the popsicle, he went to town.

They had fun playing in the pool - Jaxson loves slides!

Back at my parents house. It was awesome that Jason, Kamry, and Talia were staying there. Jaxson and Talia really warmed up to each other and they both shared a special interest in the house cat.

playing in the pool in the backyard.

on the playset. my parents just got a really nice new one, but Jax only got to play on it for a day, because it was assembled (by the amazing Amelia! good job girl) the day before we left to Echo

We also visited Grandma & Grandpa French in Lethbridge. This is a 4 generation photo! My mom and her Dad, me & Jax.

G&G French

Then we went down to my favorite summer spot -- Echo Lake. I use to spend half the summer out on the dock, skiing, wakeboarding, tubing, playing cards, and eating tons of food. loved it! This time at Echo, we couldn't use our boat (sniff sniff) because you can't make a wake on the lake. It is SO high, that lots of properties are in danger of or have already flooded. yikes!

We went to the park a few times -- Kamry took some cute photos of the kidlets.

Jax just wanted to swing and swing. He wasn't even holding on - just chilling in my lap.

My first attempt at tether ball. So I pride myself in being athletic and coordinated. Well, this whole tether ball thing made me feel so uncoordinated. I sucked, I was laughing so hard, and I get pelted in the face twice. Probably shouldn't have been laughing so hard and then I could have gotten out of the way. Nice work Amelia.

going down the slide

Jax thought the tether ball was cool.

Cousins! Jaxson, Talia, Zch, Kate, Kara

Jaxson loved the extremley low basketball hoops at the park. Ryan can lift Jaxson up and let him dunk the ball on a regular hoop, and I can't even get close to doing the same. But these were much smaller so Jax and I had fun playing bball.

We tried to get them to pose for a picture -- not happening.

food buddies. eating the crazy jello I made.

swimming in the front of the cabin when the water in the lake was a bit too cold

Jaxson entertaining cousin Jace

swimming. well, let me rephrase. I made Jaxson get in once, and then he screamed from then on when I tried to put his swimming suit or a swim diaper on. I guess he really didn't like the cold water.

going on a walk

that is a road behind us --- its completely under water

Jaxson giving Talia a hug

Jaxson's "all one" sign

we also went to a park/duck pond in Kalispell

super strong baby. we are making him train now so that when we becomes a professional athlete, he can support us in our older age

always seems to be posing

I painted the girls toenails and also taught them how to make hair flowers. Which ... I should have my etsy shop up and running in a couple of days!!

As soon as I got in this cold pool (which I thought would be warm because I dumped boiling water into it), it started to rain. really really cold.

We took Jax to a splash park/pool one evening. This water was also freezing. I was suprised Jaxson went in - but he loved it. There were 2 big waterslides for adults. One of them was the kind that just went straight down. Well, Ryan, Myself, Dallin, and his 2 friends all took turns going down and attempting to spray the water as far as possible. There was a group of kids at the bottom waiting to be sprayed each time ... and they defintely prefered it when Ryan went down the slide cuz he soaked them!

Well, we finally came home from our fun vacation. Had a couple of days, then moved to San Antonio. This was 2 days before we left. We had some friends meet us for dinner at a steak house. Well, Jaxson's little (girl)friend Nia came up and grabbed his hand, and then started walking off. So funny, and cute. Guess she didn't want him to leave.

the kiddos. Sefa, Nia, Jax, Riley, Brad

Now we live in San Antonio -- first day at church

We just bought sea world passes and went last Friday. This was an awesome area where you could feed dolphins. So cool - I got to touch one!

stay tuned for info on my etsy shop opening!

We've Moved!

2011-08-08T09:26:00.003-05:00

I have been a major slacker with this blog in the past month or so. Well, I went on vacation for 2 weeks to see my family in Canada. We also spent a fair bit of time at the lake in Montana --we had such a fun time and loved every minute of it. I wanted to post those photos on here, but I had so many, I just uploaded them all to facebook, so check them out if you haven't yet.

Other news .... we have moved from Austin to San Antonio. Ryan has officially finished his thesis/grad school (we are sooo proud of him!!) and started his first day of work today. He will be an awesome employee and EOG is lucky to have him. This past weekend, Rhonda (ryan's mom) came out to visit us for a few days. We had a fun time, but unfortunatly I was lazy and didn't pull out my camera till the last day. So here is the only photo I got of us/her. These photos were before we left to church.

come again any time! we love having visitors!

I am opening an Etsy Shop! (in the near future)

2011-07-08T14:35:00.004-05:00

Alright, so I think I am finally going to open a shop on etsy and see how I do. These are the different hair flowers I have decided to sell. Each of them can attach to a head band or can be worn seperately. Sorry the pictures are very low quality - i am a lame picture taker. Once I get up to Canada to see the family, my sis-in-law is going to help take some great photos of these.

Ok, now on to pacifier clips. These are a few of the ones for boys (have a few more to add to the collection)

Some of the girl's clips.

I would love any feedback/advice about what you think. Which are your favorites? Price? Anything, just need some help. thanks!

extreme couponing

2011-07-07T14:48:00.003-05:00

Just got back from CVS. I spent $1.62 out of pocket and got all of this (I had about 8 coupons mind you). love it!

Playdate, P.J's, and the Splash Park

2011-07-06T16:03:00.003-05:00

A couple of weeks ago, Jax and I went over to my friend V's house for a playdate. We had a good time playing outside, sliding down the couch, and watching mickey mouse.

Trying to get Jax to sit on the swing to get a picture with his mommy.
Riding their toy bike
Jax with his friends Sefa & Nia. He is sure going to miss them when we move in a few short weeks!

V has a little 2 month old baby, and Jax kept trying to get into the baby's swing. silly kid.

Jax has been needing new PJ's for a while now. Well, I finally found some and I think they are just perfect for Jax. They say "sleep is for humans."

The next morning, this is what I found....

guess he didn't want to wear pants.

Yesterday we went to the splash park with a bunch of friends from the ward. Jax had fun playing in the water and sneaking off to the playground.

I am going to miss these ladies!

July 4th

2011-07-06T15:49:00.008-05:00

We had a really fun and busy July 4th. First we had our friends over for a pool party/grilled lunch. It was super yummy and fun to play cards with them. For some reason I was silly and forgot to take any photos. oops. Then we went to our other friends house for a pool party in the backyard, which was also fun.

This is Jax and I sporting our patriotic attire.The patriotic food I made for our first pool/lunch party. Over at the Markham's house. This is Jaxson's friend, Bradley (nickname is Boo). Jaxson actually learned how to say his name on the drive over to their house. These kids are funny and quite energetic! Jaxson modeling in the pool.Splashing around with Cohen

Eating some dinner

Playing with the Independence Day sing-a-ma-jig animal. I LOVE shopping the day after a holiday because there are amazing deals. This toy was normally $12 and I got it for $.50!! score!

Odds n' Ends

2011-07-02T11:07:00.006-05:00

I am not gonna lie, I haven't been taking a lot of photos lately. The main reason is because we don't have a great camera right now. Our nice waterproof one died while we were in Hawaii and we haven't looking into purchasing a new one yet. So these are just some random photos we have taken the last few weeks.

Ry and Jaxson love eating chips and salsa. This is a daily occurance that I am ok with because they both get veggies that way :)

He loves his salsa.Jax loves rolling around and playing in the covers in our bed. One time we pulled him out, and I guess he was laughing so hard he snotted himself. Somehow he attached booger from his nose to his eyebrow. impressive.Lunch time. I guess the food I gave him was really boring?we finally got a small bit of rain (we are in a drought). I was on our porch (3rd floor) and took some photos of Ryan and Jax playing in the puddles. Oh ya, and Jax got a hair cut!Another daily occurence for Jax. He loves his mickey mouse club house! the life. chilling, watching tv, getting fed .... So my one of my latest hobbies is couponing. Unfortunatley, here in Texas you can't really get good grocery couponing. There is only 1 store here in Austin that doubles/triples coupons and their prices are so high, it is not worth it. But the nice thing, I can still coupon for tolitries at CVS/Walgreens. Here are my spoiles for the week.

2 Packages of huggies, 2 pantene conditioners, 3 dove shampoos, 2 dove mens face/body wash, and twizzlers, all for ..... 16.48. but I also have a $2 off coupon from this transaction that I haven't used yet, so I guess its more like $14.48. Not bad considering the huggies themselves wereon sale for $9 each per pack.4 tubes of tylenol cream (which is one of the most amazing inventions ever. feels so good on sore muscles!), 2 pks of liners, 3 jellos for ...... $4.16. Each tylenol itselt was supposed to be 7.99. heck ya!

I wanna win this giveaway!

2011-06-19T20:13:00.003-05:00

Ok, just saw this on a friends blog ... and they are SO cute. want them!! check it out. and if I was blog smart, i would give u a link to this. but i am not, so you can copy and paste it! ha :)

http://jergs.blogspot.com/2011/06/its-been-long-time-comin.html

Julie & Claire Came to Visit!

2011-06-15T14:26:00.015-05:00

My sister Julie and her daugher Claire came to visit us this last week. We had a blast!! We did a lot of fun things and just had fun chilling together. Jaxson and Claire did really well to get along and to still sleep good too. bonus! Here are a lot of photos from our time...

Claire and Jaxson love this empy cupboard. Jaxson would usually go in it, and Claire would open it up, and then they would both start giggling. so cute.
We definitly went to the bounce house
Jax loves these inflatable pylons (or cones for all you americans)

Jaxson attempting to go from the little kid area to the big kid area.

Claire loved the bounce house too

We also went to the splash park at brushy creek. Claire had so much fun, I was really impressed with her, she was fearless.

We also swam at our complex's pool

Jaxson thought it was fun to get in the pack and play with Claire when she was waking up for a nap. I am not too sure Claire thought it was all that fun. AND somehow, Jaxson got into the pack and play without standing on toy-He is super strong kid, and he must have hoisted himself into it (both Julie and I saw him going head first into it but didn't see how he got in)

We went to Ikea and found these fun egg-shaped chairs. The kidlets thought it was fun to put down the cover of them, spin, and then face each other. lots of giggles!

They loved to play on the porch

Jax has been doing this underbite face thing lately -- its kinda funny

precious!

he has got a good sense of humor

cute! she wasn't as willing to squish her face into the glass as Jaxson was (which is completly understandable)

Another trip to the bounce house. Jax loved playing with the big ball

Jax totally face planted here

Claire was much more graceful at coming down

and together

having fun

Jaxson testing his smarts by "matching" things on the wall of the inflatable

super strong duo!!

Jax still loves the mushroom

before my camera was one, Claire tilted her head to the side and gave a big smile. sad i missed it. this one turned out really cute though!

close up of Jaxson before he goes down the slide

practicing for football season

I rescued Claire after she made it down the slide and wanted to get out. I wish they had big places like this for me to play on

On Sunday morning, we found Jaxson reading his D&C manual in his room. He makes me so proud :) and is such a good example to me!

"Mommy, turn the camera off. I am reading about Jesus" (his exact words. jokes)

We got some delicious ice cream at Orange Leaf. Man, that was an adventure. Jaxson was tipping over chairs (heavy ones mind you). He was jumping on that white couch with his shoes on. Both Claire and Jaxson were trying to take the ice cream drip trays out from underneath the soft serve machines. AND to top it all off, Jaxson and Claire both pooped their pants right after we had dished up our soft serve ice creams (which were melting somewhat fast). Julie and I were laughing so hard at the whole situation. Then, we decided to eat our ice creams and then change the diapers. That doesn't make us bad mothers does it?

Yep. one the couch.

Julie was laughing really hard here

my attempted to get the kiddos to look at me and sit still

thought this one was adorable

Thanks for coming and seeing us Boules! I had such a fun time hanging out with you. Love ya!!

I want cake mix!!!

2011-06-15T14:15:00.002-05:00

Jaxson has done this twice in the past 2 weeks. He gets into my baking cupboard in the kitchen, goes over to his booster seat, then cries for me to open the cake mix box so he can eat it. weird! I mean, I would totally understand if it was already prepared batter or cake, but the dry stuff? (i don't think he quite understands what is in the box). I think it is quite hilarious, but sad that he gets so upset. I asked Ryan if I should open the box and give him the dry stuff, and he didn't seem to mind. I just thought it was too dry and not good for him. So I tried giving him a cookie instead (which eventually worked)

Basketball Shoes & Windows

2011-06-14T19:42:00.005-05:00

Jaxson is getting to the stage where he is obsessed with shoes. He likes basketball shoes in particular (go figure). Well, I just got a new pair and he loves them. Whenever the door to the bedroom is open, he goes in and finds the shoes and tries to put them on.

Jaxson also discovered that mommy laughs really hard when he pushes his face up to the glass window ....

he was cracking me up!

He loves playing out on the porch, even though it is 100 degrees outside. that is way too hot for me, so I just chill inside and watch him through the glass.

Watta Guy

2011-06-05T15:45:00.002-05:00

We've been living it up at the pool and splash park this week. It has been in the 90's this past week, so are in summer mode! These are just a few of the photos I snapped of Jax this week.

He loves to watch tv (way too close I might add) and he also likes to pull his diaper down (which is usually funny, unless he is poopy)
Jax found Ryan's socks in the sock bin, and brought them to daddy so he would put them on Jax. funny kid. (ok, they are my socks)
We found Jaxson in his room reading the D&C children's book this week.

I promise he does wear clothes, most of the time.

Last but not least, Skydiving!!

2011-05-27T14:25:00.003-05:00

Well, the 3 crazies of the house decided they wanted to jump out of a plane at 15,000 feet and free fall for 60 seconds. yup, crazy! This is us waiting for the first plane to jump and come back to get us.

This is a cool gecko I saw when I was waiting for our turn

About to get on the plane. The guy on my left was my instructor, and the one behind Rhonda is her instructor (he decided to tighten her harness last minute)

in the plane

Rhonda paid to get the pictures and DVD --- which we awesome to look at! Ry and I figured we could just have fun doing the jump :)

Rhonda jumped first, then Me, then Ryan

Me landing. yaaa for being on the ground!

It was such a fun trip to Hawaii with Ryan's family! Jaxson loved all the attention and was spoiled with it too. Thanks for the fun trip, lets do it again soon!

Other Hawaii Photos

2011-05-27T13:46:00.004-05:00

On the first night, we stopped by Kui'Ana burgers in Hale'iwa. YUM! We especially think their french fries are super good.
There were bikes at the house to use at our leisure. Ryan, Rhonda, and Jordan went out on a bike ride right after a big rain storm. Ryan decided to go through a big puddle and wiped out. Although he looks happy, he cut his hands/toe really bad. It put a damper on the trip because he was hurting in the salt water! (they are still healing now -- like I said, they were pretty bad)

In front of BYU-Hawaii. That would be a fun place to go to school!

This was on our drive to the Byodo temple. It was raining so hard that there were tons of waterfalls coming down off the mountains. Pretty!

Erika and Allan did an awesome job entertaining Jaxson with Mickey Mouse Club House

Bike riding brothers (similar to super smash brothers)

We played a lot of ping pong. So much fun! Ryan and I are going to get a table once we have room for it. We both love playing, even though we can get really competitive (esp. when I am winning (which isn't all that often, maybe 30%))

On Laie Point. We were showing the gang where we stayed last time Ryan and I came over. When you look down the clifts, you can see tons of crabs walking all over the wall!

We ate dinner at Ted's Bakery (pretty good) but their chocolate haupia pie was really good!

Shaved ice at Matsumoto's - they had a new flavor, white cake, which was yummy!

We were able to go to the LDS temple in Laie. It is always a blessing when Ryan and I can go (it is much harder now that we have Jaxson, and the temple is 1.5 hours away in Texas)

Who is this kid?! Walking around like he owns the place...

Somehow Jaxson kept on getting fed M&M's from different people in the house. I had to change his shirt 3X a day cuz he got it everywhere! haha

Cute photo of my boys! I think this was early one morning when Ryan and Jaxson were still on Central Standard Time.

we went back for more shaved ice!

The guys (Ryan, Jordan, Allan) decided to do a big fishing trip, but unfortunatley they didn't catch anything. sad! So they just chilled on the boat, in the hot sun, getting sea sick. barf.

Polynesian Cultural Center

2011-05-27T12:52:00.020-05:00

On Thursday, we went to the Polynesian Cultural Center in Laie. It is always a highlight for me. I love seeing the different cultures and shows.

This is at the Samoa village. Lee got called up on stage to drink some coconut water.
We decided to take a photo with the funny samoan guy while we waited to eat the samoan food (they cooked it on top of the ground, but covered in leaves and other things ... i guess it is a lot faster than cooking it below groud like some of the other villages do).

This is the canoe pagent - Tahitian dancers. I have always thought it was so cool how they can swing their hips constantly and make those pom pom things just fly. haha

The New Zealand canoe. The girl on the far left was awesome at making the scary haka faces. The other girls -- not scary at all. But that skinny left one, nope wouldn't wanna get in a fight with that girl! The Fiji canoe. Just a shot out to my Fijian friends - Vee, Tina, and Livini

My favorite show was at the Tongan Village. They were hilarious! This is the main guy who taught some of the audience members how to play the drums (Ryan did it last time we were there). awesome!

We tried out luck at throwing spears. They were similar (lighter for sure) to javelins and we had to throw it a ways and get it to stick in the ground in a hula hoop. We were all decent at it with Lee getting the closest to the hoop. scary eh?

reminds me of night at the museum ... me no dumb dumb, I want gum gum

Just to be annoying, I grabbed the camera and secretly followed Jordan around to snap a photo of him when he saw me. Results, amazing! I think they need to start an America's Next Top Male Model show, and we can submit this photo for Jordan to try out. I would like to take all the credit cuz I took the photo, but it's his face and thats what makes the photo, right?! :)

Jaxson was having fun walking around and going up and down the steps.

Waikiki

2011-05-26T16:52:00.000-05:00

On Wednesday we took a drive to the south part of the island -Honolulu/Waikiki (aka the touristy part. which I actually quite like, not Ryan's fav though)

We went to one of my favorite restaurants -- The Cheesecake Factory. We ordered Jaxson a half order of fries, which didn't exsist, hence the regular order of fries. He was in heaven (and mommy and daddy were very nice to help jaxson finish his plate)
Me & my cutie. In downtain Waikiki, there is very limited parking. Well, I forgot Jaxson's diaper stuff in the car a ways down the road (it was in another bag, not my purse, for some reason). Well, Ryan was kind enough and ran about half a mile to get it for us. This was taken while we were waiting.
This was the day before Erika's birthday, so we thought we would tell the waitor we were celebrating her b-day. Suprise!!

Waikiki Beach

In front of the surf man statue

So he is holding real flower lei's (which is kind of ironic he has so many, because ever since I was little, I wanted to wear a real flower lei in Hawaii, and even though I have been 4 times, I still haven't gotten one)

We went to Pearl Harbor in the afternoon. We got there around 3:05 and were sad to find out the last ferry ride out to the memorial had left 5 minutes prior. sad. But it was neat looking around, they have moved around everything and have re-done it since Ry and I were last there in Aug '08.

My favorite place. The flea Market, Swap Meet, heaven. I really enjoy shopping (food, clothes, accessories, baby, etc.) Well, I found some cute shirts and an ABC's quite book for Jaxson. I got some cute jewlery and I also got my pink pearl (from the dole plantation) mounted on a neclace. Such a fun place!

Waimea Bay & Falls, Sunset Beach, & Goat Island

2011-05-25T14:32:00.006-05:00

This is at Waimea bay -- this is a giant rock that is fun (and scary) to jump off of. This is Ryan and Rhonda at the top, about to jump off.

Waiting at the bottom for Dada. Jax was loving the water. I was trying to hold his hand the whole time, because if I wasn't, he would run straight out into the ocean every time. We (ry and i) have come to realize that we need to keep a close eye on Jaxson around water, because he has no fear. When we take him to the pool at our complex, he goes to the edge of the pool and usually waits for us to put out our hands so he can jump into them. BUT, if he is waiting too long, he just goes in anyway - scary!

Rhonda jumping

Me jumping

after my jump. ryan was in the water to get a good photo of the jump

This was on our walk to Waimea Falls. Jaxson had notived that I was wearing a flower behind my ear, so Jaxson picked up a leaf and tried to stick it behind his ear. It was so darling!

The scenery was so pretty on the way to the falls. This was the first time Ryan and I had been up to the falls. It is kinda expensive (13$ per person) but if you like nature, it is totally worth it. Just find a coupon in one of the thousands of ads and booklets you can find over there.

Monkey Dada

I thought this was a cute picture of Jordan, Jaxson, and Ryan (L to R).

Up at the falls. The water was kinda chilly, but felt good once you got in.

what a matching family eh? jk

treading water. not as good as I once was at it...

This is at sunset beach. Jax has fun putting on my sunglasses. I will put him on his face, then say "cool dude" and he acts cool for a few seconds, then takes them off and tries to put them on me. Its cute, cuz he does that exact thing everytime.

I just love being his Momma. It makes me the happiest girl :)

Out in the distance you can see goat island. It is only 3-6 ish feet all the way out there. Rhonda and Ryan walked out to the island. It looked like there was going to be a nasty storm, so I stayed and played with Jax on the beach.

he is mad cuz he wants to go back in the water. I finally pulled him out and wrapped him in a towel because he was shivering and his lips were purple. silly boy.

Sharks Cove & Turtle Beach

2011-05-25T14:05:00.006-05:00

We spent a lot of time at Sharks Cove - it is the best snorkling I have ever done. The fish are everywhere and they are so beautiful. We went back at least 3 times (it was about 10 minutes from the house) and it was really awesome b/c there are shallow areas for Jaxson to play in. He loved splashing!

Jaxson and his aunty Erika
and with Grandma. He loved throwing that rock in the water over and over
some of the fishies

it is seriously so cool to be surrounded by hundreds of these fishies!

There is a cool shallow cave that Ryan swam through

another cool fish. Do you know Gil from Finding Nemo? Well, I saw him(s) a few times swimming around too. I didn't get a picture of my favorite fish, but it was completly neon blue, orange, pink, yellow, and green. so cool.

This fishes scales reminds me of that childrens book of the rainbow fish with the shiny silver scales (do you know what I am talking about?)

He loves the water. we actually often joke about he is a fish (we have taken him swimming hte past 3 days in a row)

my boys

so it is fun to play around in the water, but you have to be careful because these corals/rocks are SO sharp!

having fun

the salt water didn't even phase him. like i said, he's a fish!

Ry and I swam out a big and found this guy- an eel! the yellow part is his face, you can see his eye on the lower left side. scary! Ryan got too close and it hissed at him haha

At sharks cove. JOKES. there is no way I would be swimming if this was in the water near me. Ryan, Erika, and Jordan went on a "shark cage adventure" where they drove a few miles off the coast, and went in a cage to observe the sharks. too scary for me! this picture actually has a baracuda in the background, it is right by the sharks end fin.

We also liked going to turtle beach. It isn't near as good for snorkling for fish, but it is cool to snorkle with turtles! They even come up on the beach and sit in the sun for a while.

Isn't he so cute?!

I think these turtles are so neat!

Jax splahing around and loving the water

ByodoTemple, Pali Lookout, & Maunawili Falls

2011-05-23T16:34:00.008-05:00

On Sunday, we woke up early (some as early as 4 am ... thats jet lag for ya) and went to church at 8 am. It was raining so hard, some of the roads looked more like rivers. There was a cute Mother's Day program where the seniors in HS each talked for a little bit about their moms. After church, we headed south and went to the Byodo temple -- it is so cool! And it was built without nails, seriously, crazy!

Once again, we got bird/fish food and had fun showing Jax how to feed them. He tried to grab the birds everytime he got close enough, I actually think he grabbed one pretty good once.

Ringing the big gong

At Pali look out. It was rainy and foggy, but it was still a pretty view!

Hiking to the falls. It was sooo muddy and wet, so it was a hard hike in flipflops! Ryan carried Jaxson the whole way (about 40 minutes one way)! He slipped in the mud once, but jaxson didn't get dirty or hurt, Ryan did amazing!

At the falls. They were really pretty! Ryan actually jumped off from about 35 feet up in the bushes down into the pool, yep, crazy boy. He was up there deciding whether or not to jump, and I yell "Don't do it!" (it looks way to scary to me) and he thinks I yell "DO IT" .. so he jumped. nuts I tell you! If we can figure out how to post the video, we will.

The Dole PineapplePlantation

2011-05-23T16:17:00.007-05:00

One of the first days in Hawaii, we decided to visit the Dole Pineapple Plantation, even though it was rainy most of the day. Regardless, we had a fun time, just please pardon my ratty hair and wet shirt.

Here is our little man posing as a very large fruit.
Erika and I each picked oysters to crack open so we could get a pearl. We both got really pretty pink ones :) then the lady wanted us to pay hundred's of dollars to get them set on a neclace. yup, didn't do that. But it is still fun to pick your own oyster and anticipate which color of pearl you will get!
Jaxson and Ryan enjoying some pineapple delight ice cream.

Jax liked it a lot.

Jaxson thought it was fun to run & splash around in the rain. It was so cute to watch him!

I always love feeding the fish here. They just go nuts after the food, and some even pile on top of each other out of the water looking for it -crazy!

Standing by the big fish pond.

Dole boasts the worlds largest maze (i think?! haha) so we tried to split into teams... RY,Jax,Me, Rhonda, and Lee VS Allan, Erika, & Jordan. Well, we got schooled. We only found 3 of the 7 points we needed before Rhonda and Lee left to meet someone at our house, and Ry left with them to transfer car seats to their car so they could take him. Yah, so I was wandering around solo and finally found the others, who had 5 done. So I showed them the 2 they needed and we left. It was one wet, muddy, and confusing maze.

Family Photos

2011-05-22T20:21:00.014-05:00

Well we back from our fun family trip to Hawaii and I am think I have finally got this back to normal (unpacked, jax back on schedule, laundry is clean etc.). I have been having issues uploading photos to the blog though, I had to do each photo individually and it took forever! So once it is working better, I will post much more from our trip. While you wait, check out these awesome family photos we had taken on Sunset Beach.

This one is awesome. Jax walked right in front of the camera and started posing. Like this one, he dug his hands in the sand and pushed up into this yoga move. priceless!

Erika (Ryan's sister) & Allan

Jordan (Ry's brother)

This one was fun -- jumping off the sand dune.

Rhonda & Lee (Ryan's parents)

I really love this one

more Hawaii photos to come, I promise!

Easter Weekend

2011-05-03T17:07:00.008-05:00

We had a fun and eventful Easter weekend. On Thusday, we went down to the domain (a new out door shopping area) to see the Easter Bunny. I was under the impression it was going to be free, but then we got there and it was $25+ ~ so we walked around in stead.

They have some cool little statue type things, so Jax rode the turtle.
My cute twinners
They also have a cool little splash play-area. Even though we didn't bring a swim suit for Jax, we let him run around for a bit. He got stuck in the middle and Ryan had to go save him.

On Saturday, we went to 2 different Egg Hunts. This is the first one -- we waited in a line of probably 500 ppl to get in. When we were all lined up ready to hunt, they did the count down. 3-2-1 go. I was expecting all the kids to run out and get the candy (mind you this was a 0-4 yr old hunt, so one parent was allowed in per child), well the parents all ran and started getting candy. lame! Anyway, after I saw all the parents run away, I grabbed Jax and found a spot with some candy HE (not I) could pick up. After 20 seconds or so, he got the hang of picking up the candy and putting it into his basketball basket. yep, I couldn't resist it when I saw it at hobby lobby. that thing screams Jaxson.

After the madness

Waiting in line to see the Easter Bunny, who was actually a fireman (and got called out while we were standing in line). Thus, we didn't see him at the egg hunt. Luckily, "he" (a different looking he) showed up at the next one.

This probably is the best picture I have ever seen. Jaxson ate way too much Easter Candy and blew up like a ballon. OR Jaxson got stung by a bee and he is allergic. OR We somehow got Jaxson making a thousand double chins and he lookes like a cute fatty patty without a neck. (hint:its #3)

This is the other bunng.... Jax thought he was funny and wouldn't look at the camera. And Yep, Ryan is wearing a murse ( aka Man Purse). Jokes -- that is our video camera, which is far more valuable and cooler than a murse.

shooting some hoops while waiting for the egg hunt to begin

meeting the chic-fil-a cow

checking out the spoils with dada I was lame and didn't color eggs with Ryan or Jaxson this year. I just put the eggs in the dye and got them out an hour later. Hey, I am the only one who ate them, so I guess I don't feel bad they missed out on the fun. Well, Jaxson didn't. I let him see the eggs and he thought they were cool. He even grabbed 2 of them and threw them across the room.

and he dumped them all over the floor

Jaxson did another Egg hunt Sunday Morning. He actually didn't pick up the regular eggs. Just the ones shaped like basketballs, soccer balls, footballs, and baseballs. go figure.

chocolate all over the face

putting eggs in the basket

finding eggs in his shoes

easter pancakes

enjoying some blue, pink, purple, and green pancakes. Well maybe not enjoying, he has been a super picky eater lately and he throws most of his food on the floor. help!

Well, that was our Easter Weekend! Being Memebers of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints is such a blessing in our lives. We are so grateful for our Savior, who came to the earth, lived a perfect life, then atoned for everyone's sins. It is because of him, and though the atonement, that we can all repent & be forgiven, and one day live with Heavenly Father and our families again. For that knowledge, I am truly grateful! If you have any questions about our beliefs, please don't hesitate to ask!

Bounce Houses & Parks

2011-04-29T13:32:00.012-05:00

For playgroup a month or so ago, we went to "The Big Bounce." It is an awesome place with tons of inflatable playgrounds. Needless to say, Jaxson loved it! So we have been back 4 or times since then (because jax loved it but also because kids under 2 are free!! heck ya) Here are some shots of the kiddo. Jax loves this mushroom, he just sits and pounds on it. The other day, he and this other young boy were both beating on it with their firsts and laughing so hard- it was cute!

attacking the mushroomridding the puppy

yup, mushroom again

falling on top of the mushroom

Jax enjoying some blackberries one morning

A friend of mine (vee) had her baby a few weeks ago, so me and my other friend (emily) helped watch vee's kids for a few hours. We went to chic-fil-a and the park & they had a blast.

Sefia and Nia eating some ice creamJax loves his fries. I tried to feed him ice cream but he spit it out. ??

the kids (minus jaxson) laughing at chic fil a

Addi loved her ice cream

at the park. it is about 2.5 miles from my house, so it is a great distance to jog to with jaxson -- and it is really kid friendly, so we love it!

Riley & Jax

knock knock

who's there?

For some reason, Jaxson was putting rocks into his mouth that morning. weird, i thought he was over it. aparently he was doing it a lot too, cuz i caught a few on camera (or i was just been a photo crazy mom?)

Jax and Sefia filling a container with rocks

Jax putting something in his mouth again ...
Addi helping with the rocks

next day, new park, playgroup

Cute picture! Although I regret getting it, because as i snapped the photo, jax dove head first off the bench before I could catch him (even though i was 1-2 ft away) and he smashed his head on the concrete. He got a bruise/scrap that is still healing. sad!!

going down the slide at the park

JAXSON

2011-04-20T14:37:00.008-05:00

Man, Jaxson has been living the life lately. Maybe its because we are super cool parents (haha ya right). Just thought I would share his fun adventures the last couple of weeks.

Ryan had a geology conference in Houston for a few days, so Jaxson and I attempted to go stay with him at his hotel. We left Sunday after church and drove 3 hours, and were planning on coming home Tuesday night. Well, Jax decided he didn't want to go to bed Sun evening. 8 comes around (his normal bedtime) and he freaked out when we put him in the pack and play. So we let him stay awake with us till 10, when we went to bed. Once again, screamed in the pack n' play (and this wasn't just a cheapo hotel or anything, we were in downtown Houston on the 24th floor of this place...) well, we couldn't really let him scream. So we tried rocking him, letting him sleep in our bed till he fell asleep and then transfer him.... didn't work. Even if he was sleeping, as soon as we put him in the pack n play he freaked out. Thus, at 12:30 am, Jax, Ry, and I finally all fell asleep in a smaller-than-queen bed. tight squeeze. Jax and I proceeded to leave Houston the following morning at 8 am because there was no way I was doing that again. However, Jax did like the hotel room, and he thought itwas the coolest thing to pull out the drawers and sit in them.
Eating blue candies
My friends Emily & Lindsey (same who ran the 1/2 marathon w. me) and I drove about an hour south to New Branfeuls to the children's musem. Jax had an awesome time playing with his friends Addi, McKenna, and Ella.

This kid is a book worm!

I guess I need to get him a horse or something - he loved this (for about 15 seconds).

Jaxson serving his friends Addi & McKenna

Kayaking

He found a "ball" (orange)

police peoplespace man

Playing on this dance light up mat

He thought putting his hand in this water house thing was awesome

Just a couple of videos. #1 playing with the radio, #2 dance game

My Half Marathon

2011-04-18T17:02:00.005-05:00

I did it! On Saturday, I finished my first half marathon! Me and 2 of my friends have been training since January to run this race. I am still on that "runners high" after completing the race and I feel great (minus a little soreness in my quads and knees). If you would have asked me a year ago if I could ever run a half marathon (or wanted to for that matter) I would have said no. Prior to training, the most I had jogged at one time was 5 miles. But I did 13.1 miles (minus a quick potty pit stop) non-stop! Anyway, if you can't tell, I am proud of myself for accomplishing this goal. I felt like it gave me a really good goal to work towards and it kept me in good shape -- now I just gotta try and keep in that good of shape! Me and Emily- at mile 10. Me crossing the finish. 1:54:17

I was happy b/c even though I had a hip cramp, I had enough energy at the end to "sprint" (well, you know just jogging faster than I had all race)

Emily, Lindsey, and I. Thanks for training and the awesome race - it was fun doing it with you girls!!

I couldn't decide between lots of the pics, and because I am just happy about the race right now, I thought I would tortue you with all of them :)

Yup, I do feel like a giant next to them.

Putting "arnica" gel on our knees/calves. Jaxson's pediatrition recommended it to me. Not quite sure if I think it does anything or not...

We got these "Z" neclaces (stands for ZOOMA, which is the 1/2 marathon we did) and I spent about 20 minutes trying to untangle the dang thing. wasn't successful either.

Ryan was kind and took some pics of me when I got home.

My attempt to make Ryan laugh. My version of the Haka

I love crafts!!

2011-04-05T20:47:00.003-05:00

I have had a blast the last couple of weeks learning new crafty things. A few hours ago, I just finished making this Easter wreath for our door. I saw it on a friend's blog and thought it was adorable, so I went and bought all the stuff and made one for myself. FUN!

I have also loved making jewlery since I was a youngin. I didn't really "make" this bracelet ... I just bought the strand (on clearence too!) and added a couple of links and closure.

Now into the bows ... been obsessed lately. My cousin started posting tutorials and pictures of bows she was making, so I started to ask questions/buy materials. They are quite time consuming, but they look awesome when they are done!

My General Conference spoils ....

Little girl flower bows

A couple of weeks ago, a couple of my friends came over and showed me how to make girl's bows out of ribbon. I am getting better at it as I keep practicing, but it is still kinda tricky.

can you tell I love crafts?!?!? a special thanks to my sweet hubby Ry for putting up with my obsessions

15 Month Stats

2011-04-01T08:23:00.002-05:00

I took Jax to the Dr. yesterday and these were his stats for 15 months: weight: 24lbs 4 oz (50%) height: 32.5" (88%) head: 47.5 cm (55%) So this picture is from a month or so ago, but I finally got a copy of it (from my friends camera), and I think its adorable! .

Haircut

2011-03-27T20:17:00.003-05:00

Jaxson has a lot of hair. We shaved it almost bald in September, and now it looks like this. Super long and thick (I am soooo not complaining!). But we realized it is starting to look like a mullet in the back. We had 2 options. 1) pay 18$ for a cool kids hair place to cut it 2) cut it ourselves. Well, we decided the latter and I am pretty happy about how it turned out. Ryan has been shaving his own hair since he was young, so we had him shave Jaxson's hair. Nice shot of Jaxson's hairy back eh? (ya right, that is the hair that fell from the clippers, although Jaxson does have some hair on his back)

We strapped Jaxson in his booster seat and distracted him with marshmellows and mickey mouse club house (which I just have 10 or so episodes DVR'ed so I can turn them on whenever I need them - handy!)

Told you he had a ton of hair!

Our little handsome young boy. Sorry for the scowl, not sure what his deal is (maybe it was cuz I was trying to take pictures of him while he was reading his Jesus book and watching Mickey Mouse all at the same time)

More Zoo & Ryan's Birthday!

2011-03-20T10:25:00.008-05:00

It was a super fun weekend! For St. Patrick's day, we went as a family to the Austin Zoo cuz Ryan didn't get to come last time (and i scored a really good deal ... 2 admissions + 2 bags of animal food for 4$, regularily 20). So we dressed up in green so none of the animals would pinch us and we had a great time.

The peacocks just walk around everywhere. We even saw one do the whole "spread the tail fan" thing- neat!
these tigers were huge! and possibly in love :)
pretty kitty

Jaxson was a champ at feeding the animals this time. Sometimes at home, Jaxson likes to feed mommy and gets a big smile after he gives me a bite of his food. He did the same thing to the animals and it was so precious for us to watch. He loved reaching 1 piece of food in there and try to put it in the animals mouths.

love this photo! he is my little stud muffin

my cutie feeding the deer 1 piece of food (Jax didn't quite understand the whole "hold a handful of food in your palm idea")

my boys!

couldn't get Jax to look at the camera -- there were too many cool monkies around

romantic lemers.

We let Jax chase some roosters.

For some odd reason, Jaxson thinks it is funny to come and sick on our necks/faces (it may or may not be because we start laughing really hard when he does)

just thought this was a funny one of jax

We celebrated Ryan's birthday at Red Robin with some friends. Man was it loud in that room with all those kiddlets! fun time though :)

looks like Jaxson is doing the Haka

The kids had a lot of fun in the waiting area while us grown ups chatted for a bit

Emily, Lindsey, Me, & Vee

Jaxson likes wearing my sunglasses ... so I tried to get a good photo...

ryan had to be quick taking the photo before Jax took off the glasses.

Holding Jaxson's hands to get a photo. and see his teeth??? I love them, they have such a huge gap in them (just like his cute cousin Talia)

Happy Birthday Ryan! We love you!

Young Woman's ... A minute to win it

2011-03-20T10:09:00.003-05:00

We had an awesome Laural activity (in case you aren't familiar with that, in our church we have a youth program, and I am in charge of the girls ages 16-18 called "Laurals") done by the other Laural leader (sis.tuck). It was based on the hit tv show "A minute to win it" hosted by Guy Fieri. We had different stations with taskes that we supposed to be accomplished in 1 minute. They were quite challenging, but really fun too.

This is Natalie and she is attempting to make an upsidedown pyramid out of pop cans and paper plates. The first row had 1 can, then a paper plate, then 2 cans, paper plate, etc.
This is Audrey and she just stacked 6 dice on top of each other ON a tongue depresser she is holding in her mouth.
This is Chloe and she is organizing pop cans based on how many coins she thinks are in each can, from lowest to highest (coins are in increments of 5)

This is Gavin ... he is sis.tucks baby and is such a cutie. he also peeded on Audrey during the activity

evidence

This is Megan and she is attempting to get a cookie from her forehead down to her mouth, only using facial muscles.

This is Sis. Sowards (aka Amy) and she is hooking 6 penne noodles on a spaghetti noodle only using her mouth.

the finished result

I just flipped a tortilla onto a plate on my head, using a snorkling flipper on my foot. I got it on my first try (lucky I guess ... b/c only 1 other person did it too)Elephant walk. I have a nylon over my head, and there is a baseball in one of the legs. Staying on either side of the black line, I was to try and swing my head back and forth, causing the ball to knock over 8 waterbottles.

"Spudnik" The object was to stick 5 straws into a potato and balance m&m's on the straws (if you try this, use plain m & ms!)

We also had a "shoe toss" where we had to toss shoes (using our feet) onto a table about 15 feet away. The last game was using a squirt bottle to transport a balloon across the gym into a garbage bin (use a big balloon and powerful squirt bottle if you try this). Such a fun activity!!

Birthdays & Food

2011-03-14T13:53:00.002-05:00

This past week has been awesome! If you know me, you know I love food ... like I am obsessed with food (yep, its a baaaad habit). Well, it was also my birthday on Tuesday so we thought we should celebrate! I also signed up for a lot restaurant eclubs online so I got about 30 free or bogo coupons to eat around Austin ... Perfect! So we made good use of the coupons and we enjoyed a lot of good food this past week.

This was at a place called "Mama Fu's Asian House." We have never been there before and we really enjoyed the food (so I guess their advertising by giving us a bogo coupon for my birthday paid off b/c we will probably go back). Just don't ask Ryan about when Jaxson spilled his entire glass of ice cold water on the table ... they are both still trying to recover from that.
On Thursday, some of the ladies from my ward did a "Ladies night out" (we do it once a month). This month we went to the cheesecake factore (one of my favs!) to celebrate mine and Heidi's birthday. It was a fun night of good food and girly chatting. This is the "caramel chicken" and it is suuuuper good (nope there isn't caramel in it, so I am not sure why its called that....)
The group

On Tuesday (my b-day) some of the girls and I went to Red Robin for lunch. We love the place b/c its really low key, good food, and kids eat free!

Jaxy and his birthday mommy

For dinner that night, we left Jaxson at a friends house (first time we had ever left him with someone who isn't family!) and we went to Benihana's (Japanese hibachi grill) .... YUM! I had the filet mignon, which is my favorite steak. The chef was entertaining and it was fun to watch him chop and cook everything at lightning speed. Ryan and I had a fun date, thanks hunny!

Jaxson loved the birthday balloon my friend gave to me. I am super impressed ... it has been 6 days and it is still floating on the ceiling!This is our little righteous boy. He is obsessed with Jesus and this D&C kids book. He will find it wherever we hid it, and he will open it and read it or bring it to us and then sit on our laps so we can read it to him.

Long Time Coming

2011-03-06T17:25:00.008-06:00

I have been trying to post these pictures for 5 days now. I uploaded all the photos and wrote all the captions, then published my post ... all on Ryan's blog (which he didn't realize he had one, but it was an account he made when he was at BYU ... well I guess somehow i was signed into his account). So I tried re-doing everything to this blog, but the photos were taking soooo long to upload, so I stoped trying that day. I have tried every day since and the same thing. But today it worked (happy birthday to me! literally) These are just the photos I forgot to blog about the last month or so....

Jaxson had this cute "chart your growth" paper on his wall so we could see how tall he was getting. Yep, he ripped it to shreds, my little destructo-man.
Jaxson playing with the cute hand puppets G & G Harbor gave him when they came to visit.
Jaxson still LOVES balls. And he is sporting a Canadian onsie, awesome eh?!Jaxsons new favorite food ---french fries! But lets be honest, who doesn't like them?!

We went to a U of Texas basketball game with some friends. Hook em' Horns!

A couple of weeks ago, my friend Emily and Lindsey and I all went to the zoo with our kidlets. Jaxson loved the animals and had a great time. It was super fun and Jax loved the animals. He likes to point and go "Ahh!" when he sees all the animals. The kiddos. Jax and Addi like to hold hands, cute!

Jax and the giant pig. This was right after the lion almost attacked us. We were standing about 8 feet away (literally), but behind the fence of course. He roared, jumped at us and smashed his face in the fence. Well, we jumped and screamed and almost took off running. Seriously, SCARY!

I love petting zoos and I was trying to teach Jax how to feed the animals. He wasn't too impressed.

I stuck Jaxson's hand through the fence so I could snap a quick pic.

All the kiddies again. So sad we are all moving away in a matter of months :(

Training Advice Needed

2011-02-22T15:45:00.003-06:00

So I am in my 6th week of training for a half marathon in April. This is the workout sheet I have been following

http://www.halhigdon.com/halfmarathon/novice.htm

I am looking for any advice about running and completing half marathons...

cramping in diaphram?
nerve pain in feet?
bathroom while running?
bordem?

these are just some of the issues I am having right now. But I am enjoying staying in shape and having a schedule I need to follow. Now I just gotta tone down my sweet tooth so all this running will actually be doing something!

Please give me any and all the advice you have about running so I can improve what I am doing. thanks!

Valentine's Day N' such

2011-02-15T13:40:00.006-06:00

It's back! Yep, I really took away Jaxson's chair and gave it to him again on Valentine's Day. I don't think he noticed :) He was really happy when he walked out into the living room and found this! It is so much fun to do little suprises for Jaxson because he is always so happy about it - makes being a parent that much funner!
He is getting the hang out sitting in it too! He is watching Mickey Mouse Clubhouse quite intently here...

Ryan (&Jaxson) were such sweethearts to me. "Jaxson" suprised me with this beautiful tear-drop shapped diamond neclace - it has a smaller heart on the bottom made up of a mommy holding her baby- so cute and thoughtful! Ryan then suprised me with a beautiful white gold/gold diamond bracelet. He is such a sweetheart!!

For our Valentine's Day breakfast, we ate red velvet pancakes with whip cream and berries. Along side that was fresh pinapple and turkey bacon. YUM! This is Jaxson telling me to get back in the kitchen and cook while...

he snarfs down his whip cream.

Other things Jaxson has been up to.... He has successfully learned how to tip over his basketball hoop and ride it.

He still loves eating and making big messes.

He has also learned how to pull his diaper down. Not sure where he learned that one, but he has got a cute plumber butt!

Grandma H suggested we clean out this cupboard for Jaxson (since he just threw the stuff all over the floor anyway. Well, he loves it. He crawls in there all the time!

and again

This is one of my new favorite things... a gate that is STRONG enough keeps Jaxson out of my kitchen (we had to try multiple ones) Love it!

the silly peek-a-boo kid himself!

Wish he would start feeling better. He has had a rough couple of days -- really snotty nose, coughing, not sleeping well (wakes up lots). He did sleep in this morning, but then he wouldn't eat breakfast and he threw up all over his new car seat and our new car. Sad! So Mommy & Jaxy bear are having a pajama and TV day today!