Family Vacation

Warning: Long Post!

Sorry about all the pictures, but I want to be able to remember this trip :)

This past weekend Alan and I went on the first Eckman family vacation since we've been married and we had a blast. We were going to go to San Diego and spend time at the beach, but ended up deciding that California is too expensive. So instead we just went up north and had just as much fun for half the price!

The first night we got up there we went to Sampan. This is our favorite restaurant up north and had to share it with my family!

Our favorite dish, Hawaiian chicken served in a pineapple! Yum!

On Day two we went to Cabelas in the morning. We love going to Cabelas and seeing all the fun animals. Jeff and Alan had a good time hunting while we were there.

Madison loves animals and hates the camera so this is how most pictures of her turned out.

Alan found these HUGE boots! Very sexy honey!


That night we found a yummy Mexican restaurant to eat at and we told them it was Alan's birthday! He wasn't very happy about the big sombrero. But it was funny!

On day three we went to Thanksgiving point to go to the petting zoo. On the walk down to the petting zoo we found this fun water contraption and the "kids" aka Alan and my dad, couldn't help themselves...

They had lots of fun with it!

When we made it down to the petting zoo we saw all kinds of animals. Madison liked the baby chicks.

She also went on a pony ride.

Alan walked beside her and I think he had just as much fun with it as she did. She was all smiles and giggles. Afterward she kept saying "ride horsey". It was fun!

And we got a picture in one of the pretty gardens. I had never been to Thanksgiving Point and didn't ever realize how pretty it was. If I lived up north that is for sure where I would have had my wedding reception! So beautiful!

That night we put McKinley's hair in her first ponytail. Look at that tiny spout! It was so cute!

We also went up into downtown Salt Lake and went to Discovery Gateway at the Gateway Mall. It was so fun! We'd heard good things about this place, but it was even better than what we'd heard. The kids, all the kids, had a blast!

In one place there was a little house that Madison could play in and she went straight to the babies...she is a little mommy at heart!

There was also a fun slide that kept her busy for awhile as well.

Garrett fell in love with the water feature. They had little aprons for the kids and they could play with all kinds of things in the water.

There were these massive building blocks that sissy could actually get together and pull apart, she loved them, and you see Alan in the background building with something as well...he has just as much fun as the little kids! There were all kinds of things at this place, a market they could pretend to work at, a farm, a construction site, all kinds of blocks and things to build with, a media place, and so much more! We loved this place!

After this day for some reason I stopped taking pictures. The next day was Sunday so we went to Temple Square and then went swimming at the hotel that night. Then on Monday morning we got up and went to Hogle Zoo and came home that afternoon. When Beth and Chelle post there pictures I'll steal them and put them on here. It was such a blast and even though the weather was awful we were able to do a lot of things and have so much fun!

About the Paxtons

I feel like it's been forever since I've done an actual update of the day to day lives of my family and since I want to remember it...here goes.

I'll start out with Alan, no pictures, sorry. Maybe that will give you an idea of how seriously busy my husband has been for the last couple of months. In March Alan started a program to get his Bachelors degree in communications and that has been a lot of work for him. But he is doing awesome in his classes! All A's or A-'s so far and we are so proud of him! This last week he started a summer statistics class...it's the last class he needs in order to get his associates degree and it has to be done before the fall. So to say the least his stress level has gone up this week. So as of right now this is what his schedule looks like.

Monday-Friday he works 9:00-5:00 at the bank

Tuesday from 6:00-10:00 he is at night school for his communications program.

Tuesday-Thursday from 11:00-1:00 he has his statistics class.

Every night of the week he spends at least 2 hours (if not more) on homework to keep up. With the stats class it has added a lot more to that time.

Then on the weekends Friday-Monday he has been getting up to do the paper route in the mornings to help me out.

To top it off he has also been trying to study to get licensed to be able to sell insurance at the bank. In 2 weeks he starts some classes for that too.

He's trying to balance managing the bank, school, family, church, friends (which I'm sorry to report we haven't seen much of lately), and whatever else is thrown his way. I must say that if I were in his shoes I would have broke long ago. (Let's face it, I broke a long time ago for him!) But he is handling all this amazingly. He's organized and happy and a little stressed. What an amazing man I married!

Then there's me...I'm about 19 weeks along now...almost halfway there! I've decided that the sun is a lot hotter when you have a big belly! I've just been busy with working and taking care of Madison and the baby inside of me. I wish I could say that I'm as busy as Alan is, but I guess just busy in a different way. My mind is always busy with worry and stress about Alan and Madison and now Kennedie. As excited as I am to add another baby girl to my life I worry about how throwing another thing onto the pile will affect us. I worry about how all of this affects and will affect Madison. I worry about Alan with everything he has going on. But the amazing this is that I know it will all work out one way or another because it always does. I know we're being taken care of and blessed because I know we are making the right decisions in our life. And that about sums up what has been going on with me. Now to the fun one in the family!

Madison has been super busy too! She's now 18 months old and I can't say she's my baby anymore because she is clearly a big girl! She loves wearing mommy's shoes or necklaces or pretty's (bracelets) or anything else of mine that she can wear.

She is without a doubt the most beautiful thing that I see in the morning...look at the bed hair, she's always had some lovely morning hair, but that morning it was extremely bad!

Her favorite thing in the world these days is to go swimming or to just be outside! She would be in the water every minute of every day if I let her or be playing in the dirt or mud outside. She LOVES to be outside! But it's very hot outside so we can't always be out there...I know I'm mean.

She and I are best buddies, unless daddies home. Then I'm always looked over.

Things about Madison at 18 months:

-She's starting to put words together like "mommy's cup" or "my cup".

-Her favorite word these days is "mine".

-She has started to hit and kick McKinley which makes me nervous about having Kennedie.

-When I count to 5 with her I will say 1 then she will say 2 and 3 then I will say 4 and she will say 5! She only like 2, 3, and 5 though. Although she will say 1, 2, 3, go!

-She loves coloring. I'm nervous about my walls.

-She's still a really good eater, but gains no weight.

-She likes to walk and not be held when we go places.

-She says yeah if she wants something and no if she doesn't. It makes communicating a lot easier. She also says ok when I explain something to her, which is really cute.

-She has 8 teeth that SHE likes to brush. The funny thing about these teeth is that 4 of them are molars. She has her front 4 teeth and then her 2 year molars are coming in...weird.

-She loves to help with anything I'm doing. Sometimes I like it.

-She still loves to read.

-She loves to twirl in circles.

-She is just so much fun!

Fishing with the Boys

On Memorial Day Reed and JD came into town to go fishing with grandpa. They called and invited Alan to go along and I said well you can go, but I want to come too. It's not too often these days that Alan gets some time off so I wanted to tag along.

This is about as good as shot of Madison as I can get these days, she does not like to look at the camera anymore so her pictures rarely turn out. Anyway, it was her first time fishing and she was so excited about the water. She wanted to jump right in. (Later in the day she actually did fall in and get her pants all wet. after that she decided maybe the cold water wasn't so fun :)

She enjoyed sitting on the side and throwing dirt all over herself...I enjoyed it too.

We started out at Baker, but weren't getting any bites at all so we decided to move up to Pine Valley instead.

Success! We caught I think 6 fish, but only brought home 3. My dad, Reed, and JD with one of the baby ones they threw back.

Alan caught two fish. This was the first tiny one that we didn't keep, but the second one was a keeper! We had a blast. I love being outside and wish I did it more often. After we went fishing we came home, showered, and then went to a splash park for a barbeque at which I didn't get any pictures...sorry! But it was a good day!

Anniversary Weekend

On May 24 Alan and I celebrated our 3rd anniversary! In some ways it seems longer than just 3 years, I can't really remember life without Alan and Madison in it. Anywho the following weekend we decided we would spend some time with just the two of us. On friday night we went to dinner and Beth and Jeff took Madison so we could have a worry free night to ourselves!

On Saturday we went up to Zions and hiked Emerald Pools...I have always just thought this was a pretty easy hike, but I must say that I realized how out of shape I was. This is a picture of the lower pool. I wasn't tired yet here.

And this is a picture of my fat self at the upper pool. I was beat in this picture...if you can't tell already.
The hardest part of this weekend was the fact that we decided that we wanted to leave Madison overnight. This was the first time I had to do this and it honestly broke my heart to do it. I missed her so much the whole time, but we did it and she was just fine.

After bathtime reading a book with uncle Jeff. Doesn't Garrett look so old in this picture?

Three best friends! These three love playing together and ask for each other all the time! Garrett, McKinley, and Madison.

And the little stink sat still for Beth while she painted her toenails...something she will not do for me. Anyway, I was so excited to get back into town and pick Madison up...I just knew she had to have missed me as much as I missed her...yeah right. I get there and bend down to pick her up and she runs right past me and yells "Daddy!" Break my heart! Shows where her true alliance lies :) Oh well, thanks Beth and Jeff for taking her for us!

It's a...

Girl!!!

We finally had our ultra sound today and we found out that in November Kennedie Mae Paxton will grace us with her presence. We are so excited to add another girl to our family and I seriously can't wait! Seeing her today made me just want to have her and to hold her and cuddle her. It's funny how differently Kennedie's ultra sound went than Madison's. If that is any indication of what this little girls personality is going to be then I will have complete opposites. She was so docile and cooperative...it was a nice little change! Haha! Anyway yay for girls!

14 Weeks

With Madison I didn't take any belly shots and I figured someday I would regret it. I really don't regret it, but I don't want to look back someday when I'm old and realize that I don't have a single pregnant picture of me...so here I am. I hate pictures of myself. Anyway, I am 14 weeks along and I think by now I have been pregnant long enough to have my baby any day now. Seriously this pregnancy feels like it is going by so SLOW! I've been super sick and am finally starting to feel a bit better. I've started feeling little flutters in my belly that I'm sure are the baby which is fun. It has a really strong heartbeat and is measuring right on. So all is really looking good. I can't wait to find out what we are having, but that probably won't happen for another month or so. I kind of think that it's a girl because my pregnancies are so similar, but who knows. Boy or girl we can't wait!

Madison's Hair

So Madison hates to be bothered. She doesn't like her face or hands wiped, she absolutely hates getting her diaper changed, she loves the bath, but hates the cleaning up part, and getting dressed is quite a chore. I think it goes without saying that when it's time to do hair...we struggle. Remember how I said that we are both a little bit stubborn and we both want things done how we want things done? This is probably our biggest fight. See if Madison had her way she would wake up with her crazy hair...eat breakfast and get it stuck to her face every morning and consider it done. Obviously I have a different opinion on the matter. And this one is a battle I won't lose.

Right now this is the style of choice. Madison is everywhere so I like her hair to be out of her face and tight so it will stay in for most of the day. It's actually really cute on her when it's done.

I've tried a lot of ways to try to get Madison to sit still so I can do her hair...but I've found that the best way is the bribe...

See we're both happy, she has a chocolate brownie and I have hair done tight and out of the face...by the way mom, again I'm sorry for ever putting you through the same fights. The End. :)