It doesn't get much better than this

My sister took this picture on her phone when we were in Utah for Christmas and she just sent it to me.
All I can say is... I love this little boy - and it doesn't get any better!

Jen - Trevor's wedding - my mom

 So for those of you who do not know - my brother Trevor married the love of his life Jordyn on February 18th. I was lucky enough to be able to go to Utah with Jaxon and be there for the wedding. Dan had a lot going on with school so he wasn't able to come and I didn't want to fly alone, so my friend Jen flew to Lubbock on a Wednesday - we hung out and had a great time, and started the 14 1/2 hour drive back to Utah on Sunday - a week before the wedding. Jaxon actually did really well on the car ride there. Then that entire week I got to spend with my family, helping get things ready for the wedding. I was so glad I got to be a part of it. Friday they got married and it was a perfect day! Everything was beautiful and I am so happy for them! Then Sunday my mom and I started the long drive home. We had a lot of interesting experiences on the way - the car did a couple of different and weird things at different times on our drive, but every time something was happening we would say a prayer and everything always fixed itself. It amazes me how much the Lord is in our everyday lives and cares about us and makes sure we are ok! Well we got back to Lubbock late Sunday night and my mom and I hung out until she flew home on Wednesday. It was so much fun having her here. We went shopping and found cute things to help make my house feel more like a home - and Jaxon LOVED having his grandma here. I couldn't have made the drive by myself so I am so thankful for the willingness of Jen and my mom to drive over 14 hours with me! I know its rough! Here are just a few pictures of Trevor and Jordyn's wedding! They are such a cute couple!

I made these pages for people to sign that came to the wedding. I don't really scrapbook so I was really excited about how they turned out. I thought they turned out pretty good.

 This is Simon - Trevor's best man/friend - and my other "brother" Him and his cute wife helped with Jaxon a lot during the reception so I could talk to people - Jaxon had a blast with him.

Wow - I'm bad at keeping up

Well lately I haven't been very good at blogging - and I have been even worse at taking pictures. On of my cute cousins started project 365, which is her taking at least 1 picture every day to try and show something that happened that day. I started yesterday so here is yesterday and today's pictures.

 Jaxon has been obsessed with pickles lately - he will get into the fridge and pull out the pickle jar and then he just  keeps eating them all day. If I didn't know better I would say he was pregnant LOL.

You will notice from the above picture that we cut Jaxon's hair. He is doing this thing now where if he has something in his hands he will rub it in his hair - probably because he see's Dan do that with the gel - but its not so fun for me when I have just given him a bath and he does it with peanut butter and jelly from his sandwich LOL - so I was hoping that with less hair - it will be cleaner longer - we will see how that goes.

Some quick things about Jaxon that I want to jot down for memories sake
-he is OBSESSED with toy story (thank heavens there are 3 so I can switch it up once in a while) and when he wants to watch it he just says BUZZ lol.
-while my mom was here in Lubbock with me (more on this later) we went to walmart and saw toy story P.J.'s so we knew we had to get them. Jaxon held them and.... wait for it... KISSED them over and over for 5 mins straight LOL - not gonna lie it was so funny I was crying! Unfortunately when we went to actually buy them, they had been recalled so we couldn't get them - but next time I find toy story jammies - I will be getting them.
-Jaxon says "I don't know" a lot now. I ask him where something is - he will say I don't know and puts his hands in that I don't know position haha. Its really cute!
-He LOVES taking baths with bubble bath so there are lots of bubbles and he will sit in the tub and say pop every time he pops one!
-he doesn't like to have food on his hands while he is eating so if he gets some on them he will shake them and say sick until it comes off. The best part of that is that when he says sick it sounds like... well a swear word (sh*t) haha.
-if something is hot (which everything that is warm is) he will say hot, put it right on his lips and then he blows on it.
-for a long time now we have only been letting him have his binky when he goes to bed, so when he wakes up in the morning he has to say bye bye to the binki and he will throw them in his bed - yell bye and run out of his room.
-whenever we leave somewhere he loves to say bye and wave to everyone! He will blow kisses to family and friends that we tell him to!
-He loves to give high fives and bones to people.
-he says please and more in sign language, but when he says please he rubs his arm pits and says "sees" instead of his belly/chest while saying please. (even though he knows how to say the P sound)
-when ever anything falls/drops he says - "oh no" and puts his hands over his mouth
-he LOVES doing summer-salts and he learned how to do them all by himself.
-he loves to wrestle and if you are sitting on the ground, you are free game. It isn't afraid of anyone, he wrestles with big kids and adults and just goes at them 100% - he doesn't hold anything back and enjoys every second of it.
-now when he gets hurt - he wants me to kiss it better, and even if I can tell its not hurting anymore, he will sometimes fake cry/whine so I will kiss it again (which I totally don't mind doing)
-anytime he hears or sees a dog - he stops what he's doing and yells WOOF!
-he loves the t-rex dino at the science center here in Lubbock that he used to be so afraid of. Now he loves to wave to him and roar with him when he roars.

I'm sure there are a million other things I'm forgetting but oh well. I'm trying to be better at documenting things so hopefully I will actually do it.

Back to Utah we go!

I can't believe I haven't posted about this yet, but a week or so ago we got some amazing news - Dan got an internship with a FEDERAL JUDGE in Salt Lake City! For those of you who don't know (which will most likely be anyone that hasn't gone to law school or hasn't been married to someone going to law school) getting to intern with a Federal Judge is really prestigious! The Judge he will be working with was the Judge that covered the Elizabeth Smart trial, so Dan is going to learn A LOT from him I'm sure. Everything is working out so perfectly! Dan's last day of Finals this summer will be May 13th and so we will head to Utah shortly after that - my brother Landon gets released from him mission on May 13th!!! My parents are going to pick him up so he wont get home until the Thursday after that which will be perfect so we can be there at the airport to welcome him home! Then we will get so spend fun vacation time with family and friends until after Memorial Day and that is when Dan will start full time with the Judge! His internship will be 10 weeks which will be perfect and end in just enough time for us to get back here and get ready for his 2nd year of law school to start! We are also lucky enough (this isn't 100% final yet) to have a family live in our house during the summer while we are in Utah - it will help them out since they will need to stay somewhere fully furnished and just for the summer, and it will make us feel better knowing our house isn't just sitting for 3 months! We feel VERY blessed right now that all of this is happening and we know the Lord has his hands in all of it! The biggest reason I am excited to be in Utah this summer is because my brother Landon has never met Jaxon - Jaxon was born a month after he left on his mission, so getting to spend an entire summer with him and him getting to play with Jaxon and get to know him, means the WORLD to me! YEAH!!!!!

Exploding Potatoes

I was baking potatoes the other night and it reminded me of this story - its totally random but I thought I would share.

So Dan and I were over at his parents house and I was helping his mom with dinner and she asked me to wash the potatoes, wrap them in foil, poke holes in them with a fork, and put them in the oven. POKE HOLES IN THEM??? I asked her why I needed to poke holes in them and our conversation went something like this.
Leesa (Dan's mom) - haven't you cooked potatoes before
Me - yes
Leesa - Well if you don't poke holes in them they will explode
Me - I have heard of that in the microwave - but not in the oven. My mom never poked holes and I have never poked holes in the potatoes we cook in the oven and we have never had an explosion
Leesa - Really? Well lets just poke them anyway, just in case.

HAHAHAHA - obviously Leesa was told her entire life that if she didn't poke holes in the potatoes, they would explode, and so instead of testing it and chancing having an oven full of exploded potatoes, she just did it. So that got me thinking, how many things like this have we been told that are not true, but no one knows they aren't true because no one wants to deal with the consequences if they are!

18 Months

Jaxon is technically 19 months now... as of yesterday, but I never posted anything about him being 18 months. I can't believe how fast time goes by! I hate saying that because EVERYONE says that and everyone tells you that it does and to cherish every moment. Well I have been doing that, but it doesn't change anything. I still miss my little baby Jaxon but at the same time I love the older Jaxon. I don't think it matters how much you cherish every moment, it will  never seem like it was enough. This next part is mostly for me and so it is documented, it is in no way a, "I think my child is amazing" brag fest, because I think he is learning to talk slower than some kids his age, but he is developing at his pace which is the right one for him! :) But I do think he is amazing, even if he wasn't talking I would think that because he is my child LOL. But he is taking a lot now, even if he isn't saying words, he just babbles and babbles and uses his hands a lot when talks LOL. It makes everything he says seem like it is REALLY interesting. He says mama, dada, papa, hot, yes, no, up, help, please, cheese, dont, stop, water, waffle, puppy, purple, yellow, jump, kick, duck, hat, eyes, I, you, and I think thats all - lol. Obviously his pronunciation isn't perfect, but you can tell what he is saying. :) He can also make the sounds of almost every letter in the alphabet. Like if you ask him, what does the "A" say - he will say ahhh and so on and so forth. He can also make animal sounds for a cow, dog, lion, monkey, and dinosaur - haha, random mix. He loves doing head shoulders knees and toes, ring around the rosey, somersaults, dancing, playing basketball, throwing anything and everything, playing peek a boo, being chased around the house, wrestling, being outside ALL THE TIME, *I will talk more about this a little later* and reading books.  He also loves giving and blowing kisses and loves (which are hugs) to anyone and everyone. His hugs are just him tilting his head and putting it on someone shoulder, or thigh, or wherever he can get it haha. I think he does it that way because I would be holding him and then put my head on his shoulder and say "loves" - so since my arms were already around him, I don't think he realizes that that is how to give a proper hug. I haven't taught him the real way yet because it is so dang cute when he does it his way. :)  He also loves to say HI and wave and smile to everyone. Grocery shopping is an ordeal, he has to say hi to everyone we pass with a big wave and then when we are checking out he likes to hand the checker/cashier the food - he likes to be very involved in everything. People always ask how old he is and when I tell them his age, they are shocked. Probably because he has so much hair, he is really big for his age, and has all his teeth but 4 (2 molars on the top and bottom) - so I think that makes him look older. He has also been going to nursery since the middle of December, and he has had NO problem going. In fact, he pushes his way off of me to get to the toys. I usually slip out so there isn't a problem and the nursery leaders say he will look around for me when he stops playing for a second and when he doesn't find me or Dan he will cry for about a minute and then he is fine. But when we come to get him when church is over, he gets SOOO excited and "talks" about everything that happened in nursery until we get home. So back to talking about outside all the time. When we were in Utah for our Christmas vacation and it was cold and snowing, and someone opened the door and he started to run outside without his shoes and sock on, so I thought - ok I'll let him go out there and step in the snow to feel how cold it is and then he probably won't want to be outside all the time. Wrong - he stood in the snow for what seemed like forever, I ran out and grabbed him, put my hands around his feet to warm them up and started carrying him inside and he started getting so upset. Then we went for a walk when it was below 10 degrees, we bundled him up but by then end you could tell he was pretty cold, but again, as soon as we started going back inside, he was really upset. We also took him outside in a blizzard-didn't matter. This kid wouldn't care if there was a hurricane - he would want to be out in it. Well this post has gone on long enough, I could talk/type for days about my little man. He is my world - I just love him to death. He has brought so much joy into my life. He also can drive me crazy - he is already such a boy haha, but I wouldn't change anything about him! Love you Bubba Bo!

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year

First of all, Merry Christmas and Happy New Year to everyone! I know I haven't posted on here in a while, and that is due to us having too much fun over the Holidays - but we will be back in Texas in a few short days and I will post about our Christmas vacation then! Thanks to everyone who took time out of their busy schedules to come see us - it meant a lot! We have LOVED being here with our family and friends and it will be hard going back to Texas, but we get to come back in February for Trevor and Jordyn's wedding and then again in May for  my little brother Landon's homecoming - so it won't be long before we get to see everyone again! At the same time, we are excited to go back to our house and be with the wonderful friends we have made in Texas! We will see you all soon!

We are so excited for 2011 and all the possibilities that it holds!