Hallelujah

This semester has been so busy (hense the lack of frequent posts) and today was my last day! It's been fun at times though and a part of me is sad to have some of my classes be over. For those of you who don't know, I'm an Interior Design major, and it is sooooo time consuming. I love it though. We did a few group projects this semester... The first one we did was called the Ogden project. Ogden city knocked down 6 full city blocks and came to us to come up with a design/use for the area to change the stereotype about Ogden. We designed condos, a trolley station, a river walk, an activity center, and restaurants and shops. Our project turned out really good (at least I think it did) and I will post the renderings of it later. Then we did a project called the Real Estate Challenge. We had to come up with any real estate development in Utah that we think would make a profit. My group decided to take the old Elk Meadows ski resort by Beaver, Ut and build a lodge on it for people to stay. After doing tons of research about the property and if our development would be profitable we designed the lodge and rooms. I also designed a medical spa and did all the construction documents for it.

That's pretty much what I've been up to lately. Chris has still just been working hard at the real estate office. He got a promotion and is on salary now. We haven't been doing much of anything else except for school and work. Yeah we're boring I know. On a funny note, Braxon is 90% height on the charts and 80% weight. How did I get such a big kid?! haha I guess that's where Chris comes in.

We are enjoying the holiday season and so is Braxon. He's so excited for Santa to come and he told us the other day that he likes Christmas music. He loves all our decorations and has already broken a few. I'm so glad I can just relax for a few weeks and enjoy the season! Happy Holidays everyone!

Braxy's B-day, Fall and Halloween

First, I just want to apologize for picture and update overload. It's obviously been a very long time since I updated the blog. School has been kicking my butt (I designed 6 full blocks for Ogden city) and I don't have a lot of spare time. But here are some short updates.

Braxon turned 2! We had a little party for him at my parent's house. Chris family came and all of Braxon's grandparents and great grandparents were there. Chris's family came all the way from Colorado and Nebraska to celebrate the little nugget's b-day and see Chris run the St. George marathon. We had a good time with them and Braxon picked up a few choice words from Chris's mouthy grandma. Braxon's big presents were a basketball hoop and a kitchen. He loves them both! He goes from shooting hoops to cooking us plastic fries and hotdogs. He puts on the oven mit and he's set!

My side of the fam

All of Chris's family that came from Nebraska and Colorado

Brax opening his basketball hoop.

The next few picutres are just random things we've done this fall.

We went to Lagoon for Frightmares with my family because a lot of my family works there. They had a trick or treat "Spookaboo" for the kids where you walk around to different Halloween scenes and get candy.

Braxon loves "rakin leaves" as he puts it. He has a mini broom that he uses as a rake and he jumps in them. Logan is so pretty in the fall and I love living on a street with tons of trees!

Chris ran the St. George marathon in 3 hours 40 min. His family came down to St. George with us and Chris was really excited we all came to see him race.

My brother Matt, and his fiance Ashley (Gumbi) took Brax trick or treating. Braxon kept looking up at Ashley and saying "Hi Gumbi!" Matt got home from Iraq a few weeks ago for all of you that know him! We're excited and relieved to have him home!

For Halloween we helped Chris's stepdad campaign for city council (he won by the way). We passed out fliers to people and then we took Brax trick or treating. He was Batman, and yes, I didn't have time to make the Batman symbol on his shirt! I'm such a good mom.... But he was so cute trick or treating. He would say "I'm Batman" in the voice that what's his name says it in in the movie. Then we went down to Bountiful so my family could take Braxon out for a bit. Braxon was so confused by "Gumbi". My brother's fiance dressed up like Gumbi and Braxon kept looking at her and shrugging his shoulders and asking where Ash was. Then he would hold Gumbi's hand and say all sweetly "hi Gumbi!" We had a good time and Brax got lots of candy for me to eat!! That sounds bad but Braxon really doesn't like candy that much. He gets it from Chris.

The next day was not so good.... We went to my grandparen'ts house and Braxon feel into the exercise bike and hit his head. It was bleeding everywhere and his hair was soaked in blood. Luckily my aunt who is a nurse was there and she got it to stop bleeding saying "it's not that bad, it's just a little cut." I was thinking yeah right! His whole back of his head is bloody! But sure enough it was just a little puncture so no stitches. Phew! On the way home however I ran into more bad luck... I hit something on the road and popped a tire. By the way we just got new ones 3 weeks ago. Luckily we bought the road hazard warranty so we got a new tire for free.

We've had a good fall so far and hopefully this nice weather will continue. I am working hard in school and Chris is working hard for Jette Youngblood real estate. We're loving the holidays and excited for more!

Kenny Chesney, Rodeos and Fireworks

Cousin Carter, Sister Abby, and Braxon waiting for the fireworks to start

My cousin Maquel (far right) was one of the rodeo princesses. She's only 12 and is an excellent rider.

Cousin Spencer entered the Saddle Bronc competition. He got 3rd out of 20 guys.

Ok I really need to get better at posting. I did this whole post backwards but oh well. And sorry for the never ending post and crappy pictures. I need a new camera. So we went to Oakley, ID for the 24-25. They have 3 days of activities and of course, rodeos! The rodeos there are so much fun because they're outside and they do BBQ's and Chris's family is in them so they're fun to watch. We got to Oakley just in time for the rodeo to start. Chris's cousin Spencer (who's only 18) rode in the saddle bronc competition. That's when the cowboys get on the buckin horses and just basically have to stay on for 8 seconds. 20 cowboys got to ride and then they took the 6 best scoring ones. Spencer tied for 3rd on the first go around. Then they took those best 6 and auctioned them off to people in the stands. If the cowboy you bought won, you'd get the pot. Someone bought Spence for like $150, and the most someone spent was $200 something. Then they rode again and Spence took 3rd this time cause his horse didn't buck hard enough. It was way fun to watch and I'm impressed Spencer is that good. After the rodeo there was a dance that the city put on. (Oakley's population is just over 600) so it was fun to see how a small town celebrates. The next day they had a 10K run which Chris ran in. He got 5th in his age division. We went to the pool and then got ready for the parade which Chris's other cousin Maquel was in since she was the rodeo princess. Then off to the second rodeo! We watched Nels (chris's uncle) Maquel, and Spencer do the cattle sort and then Chris decided he wanted to go work in the cook shack. I still don't know why he wanted to work in the grease pit all night but that's why there aren't any pictures of him. At the end of the rodeo Maquel gave her crown away and we watched a SPECTACULAR fireworks show!

Mandie, Me, Morgan (my cousins)

Lady Antebellum signing autographs. The one on the right called me a sweetheart :-)

Kenny Chesney! On Thursday the 23, I went with my cousins and their friends to his concert. If any of you have a chance to go to one of his concerts you should because he makes them so fun to watch and he is AMAZING live. He sung nonstop and got so sweaty we were all yelling for him to take his shirt off and he never did :( haha. We didn't have that great of seats as you can tell but I'm so glad I went. Lady Antebellum (who I absolutely LOVE) opened for them. Miranda Lambert did too but she wasn't as good. Anyway, Lady A. came out to sign autographs after they performed so I bought their CD and had them sign it. There's nothing like a good country concert in the summer!

4th of July at Rockapulco

Braxon loved riding in this tube. We went slow of course!

Ashley, Brax, and Nicole enjoying an evening boat ride

Chris is crazy on the tube and driving the boat

Yeah..... crazy

I know I am way late (as usual) on posting about the 4th of July. I have been so busy with homework and I am really behind in my classes, so every spare minute I have goes to homework. Anyway, our 4th of July weekend was so much fun! We went with our aunt and uncle, Nicole and Mark, and cousins Ashley and Alex to Rockport resevoire for a weekend of camping, boating, wave-running, fishing, canoing, games, campfire shinanigans and more! My uncle's friend owns the campground and yurts at Rockport and he has a lot of boats, wave runners, canoes, and water toys that he rents out. When no one is renting them, he let us take our pick. The pictures show basically everything we did, but we had such a good time getting to know our family even better. Braxon had so much fun on the boat and just running around in the yurt and campground. Thanks Parkers' for such a fun weekend! Oh, and if anyone knows how to do a slide show let me know! That's why I always have a big string of pictures. Also, I don't know how to put the pictures on bottom of the post.

Obsessions

Lately I can't stop thinking about......
the beach, retro sunglasses, feathered headbands flower headbands all kinds of headbands, scooter rides, old fashioned polaroids, wedge sandals, summer nights, my hubby, my baby, sun protection, straw fedoras, core4 the buckle, picnics at our park, kinos sandals designing

Braxon stories

Braxon has been getting smarter, sillier, moodier, funnier etc. within the past few months. His personality is really starting to show and he's really fun to be around. Well, he's always been fun to be around but now he can communicate better and every day he does something new. I always have an interesting story to tell Chris when he gets home. Anway, here's the latest of the Braxon stories.... Braxon is finally in nursery now! Well, he has been for a couple months (halleluiah) and he's been learning to fold his arms and close his eyes for prayers. We've been teaching him this at home too and he's getting good at it but he just does it for a few seconds. The other day I sat down with him to eat lunch and just started eating. Then I hear Braxon say "Momma!" and he made a big exagerated move where he folded his arms and bowed his head! It was so sweet that he knew that we say a prayer before every meal and that he reminded me! I know Braxon was sent here to make us stronger. Every day has some sort of challenge, in a good way! That brings me to my next story...

Braxon was taking a nap and I was using this time to read up on my classes since this was the first day I started them. They are all online and I think they will be pretty tough. I'll have to prioritize really well. So I spent about 3 hours on them and was tired of doing that so I wanted to just relax for a bit. I started watching Keeping Up With the Kardashians when I heard Braxon talking in his crib. The show had about 20 min left and I figured Braxon was just playing in his crib, cause he was just babbling to himself so I decided to just watch the rest of the show. When it was over I went into his room and was immediately overcome with a wretched stench. Smelled like poop actually. "Dang" I thought, "He must've leaked through his diaper". Checked the diaper and sure enough he'd pooped. But it was something more than that.... I moved his blankets and to my horror found a poopy diaper all strung out through the crib, on his face, hands, clothes, hair, his big stuffed dog, and all his blankets. Poor thing, I felt so bad and was seriously puzzled about how that diaper got in there. The only thing I could think of was that he somehow pulled one out of the diaper genie thats on the side of his crib. The diaper must not have been pushed down all the way. So friends.... If any of you have a diaper genie push down the diapers all the way and don't put it where they can reach it! Lesson learned.

Easter and The Balanced Man Triathlon

So, I know I'm way late on posting about Easter but I have had no free time because of design. But now it is over! I'm so happy and relieved and am looking forward to a few weeks of rest before summer semester starts up. I'm taking an online summer semester so I can graduate by next May. Hopefully it won't be too hard to do 5 semesters in a row. But anyway, Easter was fun. We started off the weekend by having an egg hunt at my grandparents house. We do this every year and my grandparents hide candy, money and eggs around their beautiful garden. This year I helped my grandpa hide them though because my grandma had knee surgery. It was rainy and of course as soon as the hunt was over, the sun came out! It always happens like that though. Braxon loved finding the eggs though. He calls them balls. On Sunday we went to Chris's mom's and had other family come over and had a hunt there. It was nice weather and Braxon was able to look for eggs longer.

Chris was the director of a triathlon for Sig Ep, the fraternity he's in. He did a lot of hard work for it like getting the right permits, getting sponsers, designing shirts, getting volunteers, planning the route and many other things. It was a lot of work but it turned out great! He increased the participants from 90 last year to 150 this year. The triathlon raised over $2500 for Youth Aids, the Sig Ep philanthropy. I'm way proud of him and all his hard work!