12-14-12

December 14th was a very sad day. A shooter went into an elementary in CT and shot and killed 26 people, most of which were first graders.

This is such a devastating thing to hear about, and having a child who is not much younger than those kids, I have so much sorrow in my heart for those parents. Those kids went to school that day just like any other day. They were excited for Christmas that is right around the corner.

I can't imagine how devastated those families were to lose such sweet children so early in life. We pray for their comfort and hope tragic events like this don't happen in the future.

Tell the ones you love that you love them as often as possible. I hope we don't forget the lives that were forever changed on 12-14-12.

Summer in Utah

Ok so I am going to play some catch up.I'm just going to post a little bit and a few pictures about our time in Utah over the summer. The first big thing - my sister Whitney got married! AHHHH! It was such a fun day! We were very lucky and had Mike and Brittany watch the kids so we could enjoy and help with the wedding, and luncheon and pictures and all that - then we picked them up and they joined us at the reception to be in all the pictures for that. It was a beautiful day and I'm glad Corbin is part of our fam! 

The second big thing was we went to Lagoon as a family with Dan's family. It was actually the day before we left to drive home so we were packing pretty frantically that night and the next morning, but it was worth it. Jaxon LOVED it - Addy slept a lot. We spent the first part of the day at the water park they have there - me and Addy stayed out since I wanted her to nap during that time. Dan and Jax had a blast! And the end of the night Jake and I did the skycoaster. He had never been and no one else would go with him and I love doing that so we went. It was a blast - no pics of that sadly. :(

 

 

 

 



And last but NOT least - we got to spend time with family. We stayed with my parents so we saw them a lot and Landon made sure Jaxon saw starwars and he let him play with his guns - Jax was in heaven! We got to meet Alia (my brother Trevor and his wife Jordyn's daughter) for the first time! She is mine and Dan's first niece! We were finally made and aunt and uncle when they had her! WAHOO! So Addy and her "played" together! And we made sure we visited the Garners as much as we could so the kids could be with their other grandparents and aunt and uncles!

 

We had a great summer. It was also full of stress! Dan took a LOT of classes and had to spend most of the summer in Texas while we were in Utah and we also had to pack - figure out what to do with our house so we could move. But it was great to get to spend the time with our Utah fam and friends!

All About Addy

So Addison had her 9 month appointment the day after Thanksgiving, at which point she was a little over 10 months haha! Oh the joys of moving. So here are her stats as of right now and a little bit about our fun loving little girl!

Height - 27.5" - 23%

Weight - 17.8 lbs - 29%

Head - 17.25 - 35%

She still has a little umbilical granuloma (sp??) that they have been treating since she was born and since it hasn't gone away we have a consultation with a pediatric suergon on the 21st to go over removal options. The fact that it still bleeds frequently is something that makes me and the doctors want to get it taken care of as soon as possible - but having this poor thing have another "surgery" is not something I want. I don't think they will have to put her under or anything but we will find out more on the 21st.

Addy, there are so many things we love about you! Right now you are:

*Crawling and speed crawling

*Standing up and walking while holding onto fingers or furniture

*Pulling everything out of any cabinet you can

*Speed crawling to a bathroom when you see the door open and trying to play in whatever water you can find (toiled {YUCK} or tub)

*Taking baths with Jax or by yourself everyday because you LOVE them so much

*Saying mama and dada occasionally

*Squealing, screaming, and giggling

*Loving playing at the park, on the swings especially but you love crawling around on the grass, in the dirt, or using the toys to stand up and walk around

*Playing with Jaxon and holding your own with him - you are the perfect little sister for him!

*Eating lots of new things

*Throwing toys or food over your head/shoulder

*Putting whatever you find on the floor in your mouth

*Getting more teeth in but right now you have 4 (2 top, 2 bottom)

*playing with your hair while you drink your bottle when you are really tired

You do so much and learn so much everyday! We love you and you are a perfect addition to our family! Jaxon loves having you as his sister and dad and I feel so blessed to have such a sweet, fun loving girl in our family!

Trick? or Treat?

Today is a day that as a parent, I don't ever want to forget.

I want the images of today burned in my memory forever.

We started out the day going to a show called "The Great Zucchini" (a kid’s entertainer) at one of the Smithsonian museums.

Jaxon was laughing so hard that he couldn't sit up, he had to lay on the floor and laugh - that gives an entirely new meaning to ROTFL for me.

Parents around us were even laughing because he was laughing so hard - it was infectious. The entertainer loved it because even things that were not that funny - Jaxon made funny by laughing so hard.

Jax even got to go up on stage and help him - he was so cute. He loved it. I love it. I love him. Addy was great - happy and content and darling.

We went home and played and had a good time - then Jax watched part of a movie while I got some work done and Addy took a nap and then we got ready to go trick-or-treating.

We drove into DC and met our friends at their house in Capitol Hill - we walked to a little Halloween Party and then started trick or treating in East Capitol Hill. It was so much fun and I loved every second of it.

It was very different than any trick-or-treating I have done - so much better - it was so much fun.

It was cold - Addy cried and fussed a little because she was cold - Jax got scared - I got scared when Jax would run toward the street - lots of amazing costumes - awesome people with their wine glasses sitting and enjoying their evening handing out candy to the dressed up excited kids - Jax's excitement at each new house - him saying trick-or-treat and then Thank you after he received candy - Jax making people laugh because of funny things he says - the conversations I have with Jax - the smiles I get from Addy - the great sport that Addy is - missing Dan and wishing he was with us - getting so excited when Dan got out of class earlier than expected - the awesome feeling of walking around with everyone in fun creative costumes and talking to complete strangers - getting yummy candy - watching Jax get so excited over his candy - asking if he can have one more piece 8 times.

 So much about today I don't want to forget - we missed Dan being able to trick or treat with us but are so grateful to new friends for inviting us and helping out with Jax to make our night so fun.

What a great day!

P.T. addition

I totally forgot to mention one BIG part of potty training Jax - and that was HUGE celebrations and rewards every time he went in the potty and he got to call whoever he wanted and tell them. It was usually one of the Papa's (Dan's dad or my dad). So randomly during the day - they would get calls with Jaxon saying with excitement that he went poop or pee on the potty! We also had some new Thomas train tracks for when he pooped on the potty because this was a very big deal for him - and when he would go pee on the potty we had little treats we would let him pick.

However you choose to reward your child during the process - I think it is a HUGE part of them being successful - and even though it gets really old after the 20th time being really excited and making a big deal out of it... I think it really helps. I still make sure to tell him how amazing he is for continuing to poop on the potty even though it was something scary for him but he overcame that fear :)

The potty train has chugged into the station

WARNING - this is a CRAZY long post. It also talks a lot about poop.

Here is the link to the video I reference later in the blog... you will want to check it out - so cute!!!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Vtq1XV6ZVOc

Jaxon was very scared to go poop on the potty so this is how we had him totally potty trained in 4 days and NO accidents during that time. He was totally pee potty trained in one, the other couple days were to get him ok with going poop on the potty. We started on September 13th and he hasn't had an accident since and is a peeing pooping pro! :)

Alright - so when Jaxon was about 2, I started thinking about potty training him, so I went online and read a TON of information about it, and what I discovered is that it is better to wait until your child is ready instead of forcing them to do it when you are ready. So I familiarized myself with the signs of readiness and watched and waited for him to be ready. Well a little bit before he was 3 I was seeing most of the signs and one day he came out of the bathroom without a diaper on and he said he had peed in his diaper and he needed to flush it down the toilet.

Luckily he didn't because that could have been a major plumbing expense, but that day I decided to just start potty training him. I wasn't really prepared but I didn't care, I thought - he is ready right now... let’s just do it. He went pee on the potty several times that day and I would give him treats every time he did it and he was so excited and proud of himself and was doing a great job! I had him sitting on the potty to go and one time he felt like he was going to poop too and he FREAKED out. Screaming, crying, trying to jump of the toilet so I just kept putting him back on and fighting with him trying to get him to stay there because I knew he had to go and after about an hour I had the thought that maybe I was freaking him out and making him MORE afraid of the potty so I stopped and when I tried to get him to go pee on the potty after that he wouldn't. So I went back online and read some more and decided he wasn't ready and to wait. Several articles and blogs suggested having your child just sit on the potty when they didn't have to go to get them comfortable with the feeling so it wasn't so scary. Every time I even tried Jaxon would have a HUGE fit and freak out and scream so I thought we would never be able to potty train him because I had ruined him for life making him sit on the potty that one time for so long when he was scared.

So I thought I would try again right after he turned 3... well we found out we were moving across the country right then and I figured I would rather not have to deal with a newly potty trained 3 year old for a 42 hour drive - so again... we waited. Then after we got settled in here we were going to do it, then my grandpa passed away and we needed to fly back to Utah for the funeral, so again - I pushed it back.

The night we got back from Utah (which was a Tuesday 9/11/12...that’s right - we flew into Washington D.C. on Sep. 11.... was I nervous? More on that later) - Jaxon was taking a bath and came running out naked and yelled - "mom, dad - I pooped in the potty"! Dan and I looked at each other and both just assumed he pooped in the tub probably - well sure enough when we got in there - he had pooped in the toilet! We both started cheering for him and praising him and telling him what a great job he did and how proud of him we were and we decided to potty train him on Thursday. Now I know that seems weird that we would wait a day, but I also learned online that if you want to have your child potty trained in one day you cannot have ANY distractions - that child needs 100% of your attention all day so we decided to wait until Thursday because Dan only has one class that day and it is in the evening so one of us could be watching Addy while the other totally focused on Jax.

He did GREAT! That morning he pooped on the potty and went pee all day long no problem - he would sometimes go a little in his underwear and then realize and stop and run to the bathroom - it was AWESOME, it wasn't hard at all - we would just make sure we set a 15 min timer and just have him try when it would go off. Every time he went he would get a treat and we let him drink a ton of juice all day long so he had to go a lot. That night we decided to just keep him in his underwear instead of doing a pull up or anything and just see how it went. We made sure to have him not drink anything an hour before we put him to bed and we obviously had him go potty right before we put him down and he woke up that next morning dry!!!

The next day everything was great! We had him pee right when he got up, we would remind him and see if he needed to go if we noticed he hadn't been in a while and he was perfect - no accidents, nothing. We did notice however, that he didn't poop at all that day, which for Jaxon is not normal. He normally goes at LEAST 2 times a day (this is due to the HUGE amount of fruit he takes in daily lol).

That brings us to Saturday, now because I didn't want him to only be able to go on the potty with a seat... I was trying to avoid using one, but something I saw online said that some kids are scared because they feel like they are going to fall in.. or it doesn’t feel secure to them and that making them comfortable will help so I borrowed a seat from my friend Lydia and put his little stool under his feet so he would be really comfortable... he still didn't want to go so that night we decided that we would give him the option to go in a diaper if he wanted so that he wouldn't get constipated and be even more scared to go later because it hurt so bad - we seriously had one diaper left and I was not going to buy more so I wasn't really sure what I was going to do after he pooped in that one and I didn't know if letting him poop in the diaper was a horrible thing to do but I didn't want him getting sick or hurting because of this. ANYWAY - he said he wanted a diaper so we gave him one... he pooped in it and I asked him if he wanted to start wearing diapers again and he said no and that he wanted his underwear so we put that back on and Saturday night he was dry.

Sunday he did great - no pee accidents, but again, he didn't poop - he would just hold it. So after Dan and I talked we decided that we would offer him a diaper again and see what he did (planning on giving him a swim diaper if he said yes LOL). He didn't want to wear it, so we thought that was a good sign so I asked him where he was going to go poop if he didn't want to go in the toilet and if he didn't want to poop in a diaper and he said - "I can go in my underwear". I explained to him that we do not poop in our underwear but if he really wanted to he could so he could see what it felt like. I know this sounds totally weird and crazy but I just felt like he needed to experience "an accident" in his underwear to not want to do it again - and this way, I would know he was going to do it, and I could make sure he didn't get poop everywhere. SIDE NOTE - He would always tell us he needed to go poop - we would go to the potty, he would sit on it for a while and not go, hold it in, say never mind and jump off and go about playing until the urge came again and we would do the same thing so that is how I knew I would know when he was going to poop in his underwear. DONE WITH SIDE NOTE LOL. He told me, mom I have to poop and I said ok go in your underwear so he did. Now I realize this next part is going to make me and Dan sound like horrible parents but we did all of this very lovingly and it worked so I think it is what OUR son needed. After he pooped in his underwear... we made him walk around with it for awhile, he wanted a snack so I had him sit down (I put paper towels under him just in case) and he did not like the feeling of it - then when we said ok lets go take your underwear off and get you cleaned up, he HATED it, some poop got on his leg and he was so grossed out by that and then we had him help Dan wash his underwear out in the toilet. After that we never had a problem. By the way, I do not count that as an accident because we told him to do it haha.

So then the next time he needed to poop he told me, we ran to the potty and we sat there for a while and he didn't go - so instead of putting his underwear back on I just had him running around with nothing on and I actually think that helped because he didn't want to poop on the floor so he would run really fast to the bathroom when he felt like he was going to go - then he finally went on the potty and he didn't want to look at it, he was embarrassed and told me not to look at it or smell it and he was acting sad so I told him it was ok and we talked about why we poop and that after we eat food - out body uses what it needs and then gets rid of the rest. The poop is like garbage and the toilet is like the garbage can (this led to some SERIOUSLY funny conversations after he would eat). I also found a movie online that is so stinking cute/funny but Jaxon loved watching it - so he watched it over and over and over again. The next time he had to poop it was much easier. We sang the song while he was on the potty - and he just went. Then he wanted to look at it because he said he did a daddy poop, a mommy poop, a Jaxon poop, a baby Addison poop, and a Volcano poop so he wanted to see them. After that we have not had any problems with him being scared to go at all!

Oh and the seat thing... that has not been a problem either... I was worried that he wouldn't go poop without it... so if we were out somewhere, he wouldn't go - but that has not been the case, he is fine not using it and he doesn't use it at home anymore either - I think it was just a good tool at the beginning to get him used to sitting on the potty and feeling comfortable.

Someone asked me if I thought it was worth it changing diapers longer and waiting until he was ready. YES YES AND YES! I think I would have had a harder time cleaning up pee or poop accidents all the time...so for me it was TOTALLY worth it - and even though it may sound like it was a hassle to get him to go poop on the potty... it really wasn't that hard, just a few days of working with him and talking him through it but I would take that and do that over having poop accidents all the time so FOR ME AND DAN AND JAXON... this was perfect for us.

Joy's of apartment living

When we moved into our apartments - we were not really sure what we were getting because there were only 3 pictures online - 2 of the living area and 1 of a bedroom so we had no idea what the kitchen or bathrooms were going to look like. When we got here I am not going to lie, I wanted to cry. We pulled up to the leasing office to sign everything, both the kids had had it at that point so instead of taking them inside, Dan and I took turns going in to sign so we wouldn't have to get them out and then put them back into the car to go to the actual apartment. So we followed the lady behind her golf cart over to our apartment. The buildings have a door that you go into that then will get you to the apartments. So when it’s raining, it’s really nice that the stairwell and everything is inside. The downside is that it gets hot and muggy in there and looks super GHETTO! So first impression, I wanted to cry. We then get into our apartment and I was very pleasantly surprised. They had just painted, put in new carpet, and got new cabinets in the kitchen and some new appliances. It looked very clean and really big. We have been fine with it here. They have a cap on your how much your water and utilities can cost so knowing that we can blast the AC as much as we want and not worry about getting a huge bill has been really nice and the highest amount we would pay a month is less than we were paying in Texas so that is ONE thing that will be cheaper here.

So we haven't really had any problems until this week. The AC isn't working and hasn't been for a couple of days, our car got towed today, and the water was off for a couple of hours without any notice today as well.

They don't know when the AC will be working and luckily it has cooled down a little but we are on the top floor and since heat rises... it gets really hot still. The good thing is, it cools down at night so we just open the windows and it isn't too bad.

When we moved here they gave us a temporary parking pass that expired on September 14th - so before then I called and asked what we needed to get to be able to park in the parking lot. I was asked if our car was registered here in Alexandria - I said no - so I was told that I needed to go down to City Hall and get a decal to put on our windshield that would allow us to park without getting ticketed or towed. So I did that - I went to city hall, paid the $33 bucks for the decal and a bunch of money for property tax on our car and was given the little sticker that would let us park without getting ticketed or towed and stuck it on our windshield. While driving in the apartment parking lot I looked at the other cars and saw the same sticker so I was reassured we had what we needed. Apparently not! Friday's Dan doesn't have class so we spend then mornings as a family, so when we went down around 1:00pm to drive Dan to his Georgetown softball team practice and get the stroller out of the car so the kids and I could go on our daily walk/play time with the Straits... we didn't see our car in the parking lot. We both started to panic thinking it was stolen. Our downstairs neighbor came out on her balcony and said - you drive the silver car right? Yes! It was towed last night. We didn't know which apartment you lived in... we were trying to find you to tell you, but it was towed. So Dan went and got it all taken care of and we found out that we had to get that decal so we could get another sticker to allow us to park in the apartment parking lot! No one said anything about that and since the stickers look almost exactly the same - same color, size, shape, everything, we had no idea! Needless to say - we were not happy that we had to pay the fee to the towing company to get our car back! AHHHHH!

Then just a few short hours later - I went to go do the dishes and the water wouldn't turn on. I called and was informed that it had to be shut off because of a problem one of the units in the building was having and it would be off for about 4 hours. AHHHHH! I needed to do dishes and start dinner at that point so I was very very frustrated.

So right now I am really missing my little house in Lubbock. I guess the plus side is that luckily we don't have to pay to get the AC fixed, or the water turned back on. I just haven't lived in an apartment for so long I am readjusting to it.

Aside from all that - it really has been a good place to live. We have a Mormon family in the complex that me and the kids hang out with almost daily - there is a pool and playground right next to our building - there is a BEAUTIFUL walking trail down the street that we walk to. It looks like you are up in the mountains but obviously you aren't. They have free car washes they do monthly, a free shuttle that takes people to metro stations, we are down the street from a huge mall, and it takes us 2 mins to get to the freeway and about 12 mins once on the freeway to get to Georgetown's Law school (which is within walking distance from the Nations capitol) so it's pretty cool. We decided to live outside DC to save money on rent - and we found one of the cheapest apartments available so we knew we were not going to be in anything special. Luckily Virginia is beautiful and makes up for my apartment not being the best haha!

 

So Behind

I hate getting behind. It is so overwhelming to catch up but it is very important to me that I do so I'm making a list of things I want to write about and I will slowly but surely get all caught up!

Our time in Utah - Whitney's wedding & Lagoon
Our move - Driving from Utah to Virginia
First weeks in Virginia - tourist stops - entire family sick
Grandpa passed away - back to Utah we go - lots of family time
Potty training Jaxon
Addy crawling, eating, getting too big too fast

I have been awful about taking pictures which I am regretting now and I'm sure will regret more in the future so once again, I am going to try and be better about taking pictures.

Utah

We love being in Utah - the only problem is we miss Dan A LOT! It has been just over a week and I have no idea how I am going to last 11 more days! And poor Jax asks all the time where daddy is and he says he wants to go home. This coming from my son is a SHOCKER! Jaxon is a social butterfly and wants to be out doing things and be with other people all the time and he NEVER wants to go home - so every time he asks to go home it breaks my heart. First because we can't - and second because next time we go home it is to throw all our belongings in a truck and drive away forever. I have been trying to explain to him that we will have a new home, but I don't think he fully understands. Being around family though has been WONDERFUL! I love and miss both mine and Dan's family A LOT so it has been great to get to be around them. I have also loved that my kids get to play with their aunts and uncles and grandparents!

Also - we found where we are going to live when we move! We found some apartments in Alexandria, VA (only 10 miles away from Georgetown University's Law School in D.C.) and we just signed a 10 month lease. We are going to be there for a total of about 17 months but we only signed a 10 month lease just in case we hate it LOL. It is always scary doing things online but we were able to talk to a member of the church who lives there and she says they are fine so we are going for it. We know they aren't going to be anything special because they are much cheaper than most everything else we can find - but they are big - our 3 bed 2 bath is 1350sq ft so we are excited about that. We will be paying TRIPLE in rent what our mortgage is in Lubbock... just to give you an idea of how freaking expensive it is over there and this is the cheapest thing we could find that wasn't a total HOLE haha! I feel ill every time I think about how much money it is. And they don't have washer/dryer hookups or anything so we will have to use the laundry facilities in the basement.... I feel like we are going backwards haha and I am REALLY not looking forward to paying to do laundry but oh well....it is all ok, we are very excited for the experience we are going to have living there and for Dan to go to Georgetown so it will all be worth it ;)

Oh - also, I mapped from Utah to our apartments in VA and it is a 32 hour drive - but because we have to go to Texas first and THEN to VA - it is going to be a 42 hour drive! AHHHHHH! Luckily we will be breaking that up into 4 or 5 days but I probably won't EVER want to get in a car again after that - neither will the kids. Good thing they have the metro to get us places!

Well that’s all for now - just wanted to update "my records" of what is going on in our lives right now.

I can do it... I can do it... I can do it

Well it has been VERY busy around here. Right now I am packing to go to Utah (I leave on Saturday), packing up our entire house to move to DC right when we get back from Utah. Trying to finish things with my "propery management" job, working for my dad, oh and being a mom.

On top of that - the other day I was in such a hurry to leave that I pushed the garage door opener and then just started backing out instead of waiting for the garage to open. I usually don't do really stupid stuff like this but it just shows how truly scatter brained I am right now. My brain is going in so many different directions...it is hard to just stop and focus on one thing which I think is really hurting me right now. ANYWAY - so on top of moving expenses... we also have to get a new garage. We could have just repaired it... but the model that we have is no longer being made so it is really expensive to get parts so it was only $50 more to get an entire new garage... obviously that is the better choice since we would have probably had to spend more than $50 getting paint to either repaint the entire thing or spending time trying to find an exact match of paint.

Then a day after the garage fiasco...Dan went to take a shower and the water didn't turn on.... what the? So I called Lubbock Power and Light to find out that our bill hadn't been paid and they shut the water off! What the crap!!! I had us set up on an automatic bill pay but about a month ago our credit card number was stolen so we had to shut that card down... well I thought I had switched everything over - but aparently LP&L fell through the cracks. ARE YOU SERIOUS? I was able to convince them not to charge us the $55 fee to turn it back on - but we were without water for the majority of the day. SERIOUSLY?!?! Just another thing to show that I have not been myself and cannot handle this much going on!

The garage and water were just two things that I really did not need to happen. It's hard enough leaving our first home that I love and the people here that I LOVE in such a short time...but then having things like this happen when we are getting ready to go just seem to make it that much worse.

Anyway - things are looking better now - we had a garage sale which was a huge success. We got the house ready for posting and so we are living in a normal living environment again. Now I just have to pack up the rest of the house before Saturday... no big deal right?
I just have to keep reminding myself that it is all going to be worth it and I can do it, I can do it, I can do it.

Heading East

So if you haven't already heard.... we are moving to Washington D.C.!!!

Back in Feb or March of this year, Dan applied to the joint JD/LLM program at Georgetown University and just found out that HE GOT IN!

This means he will attend Georgetown for his third year of Law school and also be able to take classes to get his LLM which is a Masters of Law in Taxation.

We waited and waited and waited and never heard anything. As the Spring semester was ending... Dan called and they told him they wanted to wait for his grades to come back from that semester before they reviewed his application. At this point we were both thinking it was a VERY slim chance he would get it... not because he didn't do well this last semester... because he did - but because it had been such a long time since he applied and we just figured they wouldn't wait that long to tell us.

Anyway - July 3rd we were hanging out as a fam at home and Dan grabbed his ipad to pull up a game for Jax - he decided to check his e-mail. I was at a different part of the house with Addy and I heard Dan say, "oh my gosh" so I looked over and he looked up and said, "guess who just go into Georgetown!" I will forever remember the look on his face!

We were both obviously VERY excited but we wanted to make sure it was what our family should be doing so we decided to take a day and think about it. The 4th we decided to try and not think/worry about it and just have fun as a family like we had planned. Today - July 5th we had a family fast and had both our families fast with us to make sure this was something we should be doing. We got our answer and are going! As scary and stressful as it is to move across the country in about a month - we are very excited for this new chapter of our lives!

WAY TO GO DAN - WE ARE SO PROUD OF YOU!

Jaxon's Three year old Stats

Today we had Jaxons 3 year old well check. The doctor said everything looked great - he is developing great and even though he is hard to understand sometimes - his speech is fine for his age haha.

Height 40" (about 3'3") - 92%

Weight 36lbs 4oz - 87%

Jaxon does much better at the doctors now. He loves riding the elevator to get to the doctors office and he is VERY friendly to everyone. The receptionist who took our paperwork got asked a million "why's" from him. In the waiting room he talked to a young mom and her baby and tried to share his food with them and told them all about me and baby Addison and Dan and on and on. He is very outgoing and he loves to talk. I do my best to have him sit down and keep to himself so he doesn't bother people, but I don't want to stifle his energy and friendliness. He can be such a sweetie - on the flip side he can also be such a terror.... we are working on it. But I love him to pieces! 

Jaxon is THREE

Jaxon - we love you so much! You are such an energetic little boy! Everyone who gets to know you falls in love with you. You love Dinosaurs, trains, cars, and sports. You have an AMAZING imagination and can pretend anything. You love your sister and are so sweet to her and always make sure she is taken care of. You love your friends and are friendly to EVERYONE. We can't imagine our life without you! We are so excited to watch you learn and grow and see what you accomplish this coming year! Your dads favorite son, moms little man, and Addy's best buddy! Happy Birthday sweet boy! WE LOVE YOU! 

 

 

Waiting for your arrival!

6.16.09 - the day you were born

1 Month old

2 months and loving to smile

3 Months old - on his blessing day!

Family picture on blessing day

4 Months - first Halloween. This is the same costume Dan wore when he was a baby!

5 months

5 months

6 months

10 months and WALKING!

6.16.10 - ONE YEAR OLD!

1st birthday party - loving his cake

14 months

a year and a half!

2 years old

2 1/2 he became a big brother

THREE!!!

Human by day...Pteranodon by night

It's no secret that Jaxon loves Dinosaurs and I know I have blogged about it many times. I have also blogged about the very wonderful imagination this boy has. We can pretend ANYTHING! Well he loves Pteranodon's (if you are not familiar with Dinosaurs - this is actually pronounced Tran-a-don and they are the flying dinosaurs... not sure why they threw a P at the beginning). Well every night to get Jaxon to go to bed without a fight - I have to turn into the mommy Pteranodon and he is the big boy Pteranodon and we fly to the "nest" which is his bed. Oh and I don't want to forget that I have to talk in this very high pitched squawking voice when I'm the mommy Pteranodon.... whatever works right???

Also, while I am sitting here typing this, Jaxon is in quiet time. We call it quiet time now because some days he will nap, and some days he plays with his toys...the important thing is that he says in his room during quiet time. Well he is "whistling" at me to come help him with something. I say "whistling" because he doesn't know how to whistle, all he does is he puts his fingers up to his mouth and he does this high pitched scream. It’s pretty funny actually.... but apparently not only am I a Pteranodon...but a dog too!

Dan's New Calling

Yesterday Dan was sustained and set apart as the Bishops Executive Secretary. After they extended the call last week - we left and Dan said, "that sounds like a calling you should have" haha. I have been doing Administrative Assistant work since I was 19 and I really enjoy it and so it was just kind of funny. But yesterday when he was being set apart, there were beautiful words said during the prayer and Dan and I both got very strong confirmations that this is what the Lord wants him to be doing right now and even though it means more time away from us, I know our family will be blessed because of it.

Dan has also officially started his summer externship with the Federal Judge here in Lubbock. Since he started we were able to figure out that with the number of hours he is required to put in there - he will be done around the first week of July which means we can plan on heading to Utah the week of July 9th! We are very excited to see family and friends and have my family meet Addison for the first time!!!!

Addison's 4 month appointment and family update

Addison had her 4 month appointment on Friday June 1st. Granted, she was 4 1/2 months at the time... but oh well haha. Here are her stats...

Weight 13lbs 11.5oz (haha basically 14lbs) - 41%

Height 25 1/4 inches - 76%

Head 40cm - 16% (she has my small head :( poor thing)

Right now she is rolling over from her stomach to her back. When she is playing on her activity mat with the toys hanging above her - she gets REALLY mad that she can't pull them into her mouth. She grabs them and tries and tries and then starts screaming cause she can't get it. Dan and I laugh cause it really is so funny. She wants to put EVERYTHING in her mouth, including her toes! She loves eating her toes. She will laugh when we laugh. She has these really cute and girly squeals that we love to hear. She will smile when someone smiles at her. She loves kicking her legs really fast so it looks like she is running in the air. I tried starting her on rice cereal a few days ago and she was not ready. She kept gagging and spitting it out so we will wait a little longer! She is so cute and we are just loving every second with her!

Jaxon is being such a good big brother! He wants Addison to be with us all the time. He is always saying how cute she is. He loves giving her kisses and sharing his dinosaur toys with her. A funny thing Jaxon is saying now days is... "that's a great idea" and he says it to everything. Jax, lets eat lunch "ok, that’s a great idea". Jax, lets go play with your cars "that’s a great idea" lol - we think its pretty cute.

I just started a 2nd part time job. I am helping take care of 5 duplex's (basically doing what property managers do without that title since I am not licensed haha). So far its been a lot of work for me to learn what I am supposed to do and getting one of the units fixed up with new carpet and paint and getting them ready to be posted and rented... but its been good. Trying to juggle that and my other part time job with both kids has been a challenge and my poor house is suffering and not getting cleaned, but I will get it figured out and it will be great.

Dan is externing with a judge here in Lubbock this summer. He needs to complete 130 hours but can't start until his background check comes back (hopefully that won't take too long) so as soon as his hours have been completed, we will be going to Utah! We will be staying until at least August 14th because that is when my little sister Whitney is getting married!!!

Today Dan got asked to have a new calling. He will be sustained next week most likely so I can talk more about it then. The Stake President was the one who met with us and it was interesting to me that he wanted to meet with me first, then Dan, then us together. I didn't know that they did that. I think we met with the Stake President because the Bishop had to leave to do some medical stuff (our bishop is a doctor) because I think this calling is something that normally you would be called by your bishop for - but who knows. Anyway, I'm sure Dan is going to be sad to leave nursery HAHA - but the Lord obviously wants him in this calling.

Well that’s all our little family is up to right now.... until next time!




Jaxon's 3rd birthday Party

Jaxon doesn't turn 3 until June 16th - but originally we were going to be in Utah in June so we wanted to have his friend party before we went. We found out our summer plans were changing and we wouldn't be going to Utah until late July a few days before the party so we decided to just go ahead with it anyway since the invitations were sent out and a few of our friends are moving this summer :(

I asked Jaxon what he wanted to do and he wanted to go swimming so we had a pool party! We are very lucky to have a friend that lives in a beautiful apartment complex with an AWESOME pool and she was nice enough to let us have the party there. The party was on Tuesday May 22nd from 6:00pm - 8:00pm. We were lucky and had the ENTIRE pool to ourselves! We provided dinner which consisted of hot dogs (they have a built in grill area at the pool which made it great for grilling hot dogs) pasta salad, veggies, chips, drinks, and of course cup cakes!!! I had all these cute decorations I was going to take - but it ended up being kind of windy (welcome to Lubbock) so we decided to keep it simple so we weren’t chasing party decor all over! Jaxon loved having his friends there swimming with him! After they swam for a while - we got Jax out - sang happy birthday to him and he opened his gifts! He got a lot of good stuff! We are spoiled with our awesome friends here! After he opened his gifts they swam some more. Jaxon was so cute and kept thanking everyone and he had so much fun! I am pretty sure he thinks it was the best day of his life - he was so happy and had so much fun! Here are a few pictures!

Party favors for the kids and the cupcakes

Addi ready to PARTY

Some of our friend eating!

SWIMMING!

Jaxon's favorite thing - he loves it when daddy throws him up like that!

Beautiful mom's playing with the babies!

Dad's in the pool playing with the kids!

Jaxon loved that everyone was singing to him

Opening his gifts

Some of his friends wanted to help him open the gifts... too cute

This picture sums up the party - Addy fell asleep, Jaxon loved his water guns that he got - I laughed a lot and look a little crazy and Dan is just cute haha.

His gifts - he has some awesome friends here!!!

Mother's Day

Mother's Day was right in the middle of finals - so we decided to celebrate a week later so Dan wouldn't be stressed out studying and be at the school during most of the day.

So on May 20th we had my Mother's Day.

What a perfect day it was! The night before Dan gave me beautiful flowers and that night he woke up with Addison and fed her so I wouldn't have to get up in the night - he also let me sleep in a little (we have 8:30 church so I couldn't sleep in much). Then him, Jax and Addy came in with breakfast in bed and my gifts. Dan got me a beautiful bracelet and some earrings and he wrote a beautiful Poem about mom's. I also got a drawing Jaxon and Addison did.

After we got home from church, Dan let me nap to try and finally catch up on sleep, then he cooked dinner while I relaxeed and played with the kids. It was such a wonderful day! I loved being able to spend time with my adorable kids and wonderful husband and I didn't have to worry about cleaning or cooking because Dan did all of it with a smile on his face! It was great! I feel so blessed to be a mom! It has brought more joy to my life than I thought possible!


This picture was clearly taken BEFORE my nap... I look pretty tired - but the adorable two kids I'm holding are totally worth it!

I also want to write a little bit about my mom. My mother is the most giving, hard working woman I know. She is truly amazing and I miss being able to be around her, but I love being able to call and talk to her, cry to her about my struggles - and have her understand and give me great advice. Becoming a mom has made me appreciate my mom more and more. It's sad that it took that for me to appreciate her the way I do but it's better late than never right?! I love you mom - you are AMAZING and I hope to be as good of a mom to my kids as you were to me!