Camping

Fathers and Sons was 2 days after Dan finished his finals so he was going to take Jaxon to the fathers and sons campout. Someone told us it was going to be an hour and a half away so we decided that since Jaxon had never been camping and can't seem to go to sleep when we are in the same room... we figured it might be better for them to not be so far away, so we decided it would be fun to have the campout in the backyard.

We don't have a tent so our sweet friends the Willnauer's let us borrow theirs. Jaxon and Dan had fun putting it up together. While they were doing that I went to the store to get all the essentials for camping. I got back and the boys cooked their hotdogs over the fire that we made in a terracotta pot. They played outside until it got darker and then they cooked s'mores over the fire. Then it was time for bed. Jaxon was so excited to go to sleep in the tent. Maybe an hour later after they went down - they came back inside. Jaxon couldn't fall asleep because it was windy which was making a lot of noise and I guess he kept asking Dan why "they had to sleep in the tent when mommy gets to sleep inside" lol. Hopefully his next time we go camping he will stay the entire night in the tent... but overall, I think it was a total success!!!

 

My Calling

I don't think I have posted about my calling so let me finally do it.

At the end of the year last year I was called to be the Activity Day leader. Because it was so close to Christmas we decided to wait to start activities until after the New Year, well I was having Addison at that time so the girls met with another ward for the first activity... but then in February I officially started doing the activities. We meet two times a week (every other Wednesday before mutual). I have the cutest/sweetest girls in the world! There are only 5 that show up regularly, but we are hoping to get more girls active in the church and coming again. We have done some really fun activities and one that I wanted to document was a Mother's Day activity we did the day before Mother's Day. We had a "pamper your mom" day and a lunch. I invited the young women to be a part of it too - but only one was able to come - and some of my girls were out of town that weekend so we only had a total of 5 girls show up and their moms. It was so much fun though! We had a lunch and then the girls gave their moms pedicures. It was a lot of work making all the food and finding time to go set up since it was in the middle of Dan's finals so he was never home - but it was totally worth it. We had a blast - here are a few pictures of the cute girls and their amazing moms!

My life in iphone pictures

Pics coming soon

The last couple of blog posts are long and very detailed for my journal purposes and do not include any pictures. I will be doing an all picture post in the next little bit which will be way more fun to look at so stay tuned!

Fun Events

The last few weeks have been filled with some fun events. First of all - now that Addy is older and her surgery is over, we have been going to playgroup which is every Monday and Wednesday so that has been so much fun! I love getting to spend time with adults while Jaxon gets to play with his friends!

There have also been some fun events in the community that we have gone to. First there was Kids Ranch Day at the Heritage Museum here and that was... well not as fun as I thought it was going to be, but it was still fun! They had little pony's there for the kids to pet, they had activities for the kids to do to see what it was like to live a long time ago, and they had part of a full size train there for kids to go on and look in. Jax loved petting the mini horses and he actually was getting ready to mount one - luckily I looked over right as he was doing it so he didn't actually jump on - but I thought it was pretty funny that he had no fear and was ready to just get on! There was also a Dino Day at the museum, they had lots of pictures for the kids to color, dino masks for the kids to make, sand pits with fossils in them and they kids got to keep one piece of fossil that they found, they also had clay for the kids to make a fossil replica in, a store with lots of fun dinosaur things to buy - and a movie called Journey to the Center of the Earth playing in the theater. Jax loved it, he saw a kid go into the theater so he wanted to see what was in there and he actually sat during the movie which I was shocked about. He wasn't perfectly quiet - he would ohhh and awwww at things and say "oh no!" when something scary would happen, but he liked being in the theater so I think I might brave trying to take him to an actual movie sometime. But it was fun because for Dino Day it was just me and Jax - Dan stayed home with Addy so it was nice to get some one on one time with him.

There have also been a few of Jaxon's friends birthdays. First was Oli and JJ Oblad's party (they are brothers, 2 and 4) - we had a fun time! Dan was out of town for that one so it was just me and the kids, but it was in their backyard and we had a BBQ and lots of fun! They have a tramp which Jaxon LOVE's! It was kind of funny at first though because he isn't used to jumping with a lot of kids so when he first got on he was scared and wouldn't jump unless I was holding his hand - then he would lay on the tramp and let the kids bounce him while he laughed his head off - then he stood up and jumped with all the other kids and had the time of his life. They also have an area in their backyard that is just dirt so all the boys went over and were digging and one of Jaxon's friends Ryker dumped dirt all over Jaxon's head so Jax had a bath when we got home and it was SOOOO gross all the dirt that came off that kid LOL but he loved every second of the party.

Next was Weston's b-day party. It was a pool party and BBQ. It was a hot day so that was nice for the kids to get in the pool. Dan swam with Jax and Addy and I stayed dry and chatted with the girls. They said the water was cold but that didn’t' stop Jax from just jumping in. That kid has NO FEAR when it comes to the water. The pool part of the party was last minute so we were not prepared with water wings or a tube or anything and Jax would just jump in anyway so it definitely kept Dan on his toes - but a little later in the party sweet Brooklyn shared her pink tube with Jax and he loved being in that thing!

The last party we went to was Carter's. He had a Spider man/super hero party so all the kids came dressed up like their favorite super hero. Jax borrowed a costume and went as a transformer! They had a bounce house there which the kids obviously LOVED.

Like I said in the previous post - we are so lucky to have such great friends around us!

We will be in Utah again this year for Jaxon's b-day so I decided to have a party for Jaxon before we go so he can have a friend party this year. Last year we were in Utah too so he didn't get a friend one then so I thought this year I will do a friend one before we go and then he can also have a family party in Utah. What a lucky boy!!!

No more binky

When Jaxon turned one, we decided the binky was only for intense screaming cases, church to keep him quiet, and sleeping. Then when he was about 18 months and starting to say more words, we decided he shouldn’t' ever have it when he was awake so we only gave it to him during nap and night time. Well it had been that way until a couple of weeks ago. I had been wanting to get rid of it totally for a long time now. I thought we should do it before Addy came, but I read that a lot of kids will "relapse" if their younger sibling uses a binky so I decided to wait until after Addy was born so we could tell him that she is a baby and needs it but he is a big boy and doesn't anymore. Then Addy was born and waking up every 3 hours for feedings and so I didn't want to deal with another kid being up at night because of lack of a binky (lazy I know). Then it got to the point where Dan was starting to do serious studying for finals and I was worried Jax would keep him up and then he wouldn't be able to focus... basically giving myself any excuse not to have to do it. The doctors told me not to worry because we were only giving it to him at night and it wasn’t' doing any harm to him at all, so I think I let that be another excuse why it was ok for him to still have it. Then in the middle of April Jaxon got really weird and possessive of his binky and would try to find it during the day and he would take Addison’s binky and go hide and suck on it so I thought this HAS to stop!!! Dan went to Utah for a friend’s wedding and some interviews at the end of April so I thought this was the PERFECT time to do it!

My plan: Tell Jaxon about the binky fairy and have him put his binky's under his pillow and then switch them out for a toy before he woke up. I'm thinking he will be excited to get a toy and it will all go great. So I start to tell him the story before his nap - he gets upset and says he doesn't want a toy he wants his binky! So I pull up pictures online of crying babies and explain that the binky fairy needs to take the binky's to these crying babies and that since he is not a baby anymore, he doesn't need it. I also pulled up a picture of a cute fairy so he would see that the binky fairy was nice! He still wasn't excited about the idea so I just decided to put him in his room for nap with no binky's and get rid of them while he slept. He went to bed JUST fine - he yelled from his room for the first couple min’s asking for the binky - but after that he fell asleep and slept great. That night, he asked for them again and I reminded him that the binky fairy took them to the little babies that needed them. He was upset and didn't want me to leave so I made the mistake of saying, "I'll go talk to the binky fairy and see what I can do." He said ok and that was the end of it that night. He slept great again. So for the next couple of days he would say "go talk to the binky fairy" every time I would put him in bed LOL but he always fell asleep great and slept great! Now all of that has stopped and he just goes to bed without mentioning it. He also NEVER tries to suck on Addy's binky anymore. I keep thinking I should have done it sooner - but at the same time, I like the age he is at - I was able to explain to him what was going to happen instead of just taking away something that he loved and not being able to give him a reason. He is also old enough that he is not going to form another sucking habit like a lot of other kids do. I know so many kids that get binky's taken away when they are young and they either become thumb suckers, arm suckers, blanket suckers LOL - anything to fulfill the need/instinct they have to suck. So what I'm saying is.... judge all you want but my almost 3 year old JUST gave up his binky and he is doing great - there was no trauma associated with it and no other weird habits have been formed. That is a total success in my book!

Friends

When I first moved to Lubbock, I kept thinking I couldn't wait to get out of here. It's always windy, the summers are HOOOOOTTTTTT, and it's... well just plain ugly here. But now the thought of leaving next year makes me sick. I LOVE the friends we have made here. I don't think I will ever find a goup of women as amazing as the ones here (although I truly hope I do). And our group of friends are all in the same situation/stage of life as we are so we all understand the poor student thing, we all have kids, we get together for playgroups at least 2 times a week, we have girls nights, we have parties, the guy's play basketball, we all love and support each other. There is no judgement - just total acceptance of everyone. People come and go each year and the new comers are welcome and the people leaving are missed and we all just have a blast when we get together.

This time of year is fun - there have been lots of birthday parties and get togethers that just make me realize more and more how hard it is going to be to leave. Jaxon loves his friends here - how am I going to explain to him that he won't get to see them anymore when we have to leave?

I would live in windy, ugly, hot Lubbock for the rest of my life if it meant staying around these amazing people who have made my life and the past 2 years away from our families so amazing. It's going to be unbelieveably hard to leave - but until then - keep the parties, get togethers, girls nights, play dates, and everything else coming! We are so lucky and blessed to be here and we know this was the right place for us to come to Law School so we could be surrounded by so many amazing and wonderful people!