Picture Tag

I'm sure you've all seen this tag already, but just in case you haven't here are the rules. Go to your fourth picture folder and select the fourth picture in that folder. Then give an explanation of the photo.This was taken Mother's Day 2005.

My very first Mother's Day as a mom! Jaxon was 9 months old. Wow! How we've changed!!

I tag: anyone who wants to do it!

It's About Love

Since having children of my own I have an added appreciation for those who choose to place their children for adoption. It is the most selfless act any parent could possibly give....to give a part of them to someone else. Though I don't know the personal struggles the birth parents go through, I can only imagine they walk through their own personal Gethsemane in making their decision and then living with that decision. What I have been able to witness is the personal struggle of those who long for children and for whatever reason have not been able to have their own. It takes loving your children more than yourself to give them to someone else to love them, raise them, and call them their own. Adoption really is about love.

This past week my BFF Melisa and her husband have been blessed with two sweet little angels to join their family... Grace 15 months and Wyatt 2 months. Their prayers have been answered, their hearts are overflowing, and their house is full!! Congratulations! We love you!!!



This is the story of Kevin and Melisa...


"Kevin and I met in a University ward up at Weber State in June of 1999, and after his relentless flirting and my loosing a bet, I finely went out with him:) he completely won me over. We continued to date that summer and he proposed on August 20th. We were then married November 24th of the same year.
WOW! That sounds fast!
After about a year of marriage we decided to try to get pregnant and start our family, but after two years the doctors couldn't figure out why it wasn't happening. We had tried several different fertility treatments with no luck and just when we were going to try IVF (invetro-fertilization) Kevin was diagnosed with cancer.We had been married for almost 3 years when he was diagnosed with a rare form of non-Hodgkin's lymphoma. After undergoing surgery to remove a golf ball sized tumor in his neck and being submitted to 4 months of aggressive chemotherapy he came out the other side in good shape. (OK several months later he was in good shape, he did need time grow his hair back and gain some weight)
After this trial we both realized the reasons behind our difficulties getting pregnant. We had both wanted a child so badly but we could now see the importance of faith and that Heavenly father is aware of each individual situation. Having a child during this time would have been a hundred times more difficult.
A little less than 3 years later Kevin and I welcomed the most beautiful baby boy into our home. Cameron was born October 22 of 2005 after a fairly easy pregnancy, labor and delivery. I really couldn't complain to much compared to some of the horror stories I'd heard mine was not to bad. But I have an inkling that Heavenly father just felt sorry about making me wait so long so he made it easier on me, or maybe its because ever since Cameron came out it has been a none stop roller-coaster ride and Cams the conductor.
What ever it is, my life has been blessed in more ways than I can say I have an amazing husband that loves me and makes it possible for me to be home with the cutest little almost-two-year old in the entire world. I am truly Happy!"

Trip To The Firestation

Jaxon's preschool class went on a fieldtrip to the local firestation. Since October is fire safety month, and the firestation is a hot commodity, both the morning and afternoon classes went together.

Jaxon was chosen to try on the oxygen tank....it about knocked him off his feet!

Climbing through the fire truck.
Building Block Preschool 2008-2009Hangin' out on the curb with friends and a yummy treat.

He Sits!

He may not be happy (he wanted a nap and I wanted to document his first time sitting solo) but his momma sure is!! Oh, and he also slept all through the night last night!!

6 Months

Ryker had his 6 month well-check with Dr. Gabe this morning. He's off the charts...but not in a good way. He is 26.4 inches. That puts him in the 50th percentile. (Good thing he's got his daddy's genes!!) He weighs 12 pounds 7 ounces. That doesn't register on the charts...if there were a bracket for the less than 5th percentile, he would be in that group. He's not rolling over or sitting up, though he has great head control and can bare weight on his legs like a champ. The doc didn't seem overly concerned about the physical things mostly because the weight is the worry. Other concerns: Ryker is allergic to milk and has eczema....they could be tied together but it's hard to tell at this point.

So here's the plan:

Mix cereal with soy formula and feed it to him 2-3x a day.

Treat him with OTC reflux meds for the next 3 days to see if his non-eating is a sign of "silent reflux" (I think that's what he called it). If it helps then the doc will prescribe something for him...if not, I don't know.

Switch from Johnson and Johnson baby wash to Dove and use Eucerine cream daily to help his dry skin.

Keep trying to get him to take a bottle. It has to work eventually!

I take him back in 4 weeks to do a weight check. He should gain at least 1 pound. If he doesn't...well, I guess we'll cross that bridge when we get there.

On a more positive note: Ryker loves to babble, chews on his feet/hands/shirt/blanket/my hair, he blows raspberries, giggles, and smiles. He still loves to be held and we enjoy holding him. He absolutely adores his big brother (the feeling is mutual) and lights up whenever Jaxon is near him (which is most of the time). If we are driving in the car and Ryker starts to cry, Jaxon will reach over and hold his hand and say things like "It's okay bud. We're almost home." If that doesn't work all we have to do is turn on the Abba CD to #4...Mamma Mia...and he stops crying. Works like a charm!

We love our little Ryker Bean!

Saving Money, Saving the Earth, and Saving Souls

It's official. I've become "that lady". I am the coupon clipping, green bag toting, money saving lady...and I'm lovin it!!!! At first I felt a little peculiar walking into the store with my own grocery bags and stacks of coupons. I can't believe how much money I have saved since I started doing coupons! It takes planning....which I'm not great at.... but it's definitely worth. Take tonight for example: I walked into the store with my green shopping bag (.05 saving) and 10 $1 off coupons. I left the store with 10 FREE tubes of Crest toothpaste! It's hard to beat free.

On a completely separate note....Jaxon walked into our room tonight carrying his Book of Mormon. He propped himself up with the pillows and said "Mom, I need to read my scripers." I asked him if he wanted me to read them with him and he said he did. So he grabbed my scriptures and said "Jesus will be happy if we read our scripers, huh mom? It makes him sad if we don't." Is there anything more pure than a little child? So we sat down as a family and read together.

"....and a little child shall lead them."

I Looked Out The Window and What Did I See?

Snowflakes falling all around me!

We woke up this morning to about a foot of snow!

Jaxon was so excited..."Is it Christmastime now, mom?"First snowball of the season.

These pictures were taken after church so the snow had already started to melt a little. They don't do our fall flurry justice.

One of my favorite things is waking up to newly fallen snow!

Besides the temporary power outage caused by the snow tonight we had a great wintry Sunday baking brownies and banana bread.

Fall Carnival

Our ward hosted a fall carnival today for our neighborhood. After many nightmares, a few tears (for no reason whatsoever), and lots of worry it went without a hitch! Here's a few pictures of the fun day: Jaxon with his prize from the Cupcake Walk....yummy!
A pair of our funny neighbors! We rented a bounce house (this picture was taken before everyone came) the kids LOVED it!
Dart Toss Game
Ping Pong
The boys enjoying a scrumptious hot dog snack!
And what is a carnival without a clown? Heidi was a good sport and oh so excited to dress up!
We also had face painting, mini golf, bean bag toss, fish pond, and basketball. Thank you to the wonderful committee, neighbors, friends, and organizations who made it all happen.

Now on to the Christmas party.....any ideas?

The Great Pumpkin

A few weeks ago my parents had all the grandkids come over to each pick a pumpkin from their pumpkin patch. Jaxon loved watching the their garden grow and was really excited when Grandma and Grandpa told him he could go pick out a pumpkin. I wasn't very prepared that day and forgot to bring the camera. Today we were invited by our friends to go to their *substantially larger* pumpkin patch to pick pumpkins. They had sold all they were going to sell and the rest of the pumpkins were going to be tilled under....or freeze.

Maddin, Jaxon, and Colton traipsed through the field in search of the great pumpkin. They were so funny to watch! Jaxon would have stayed for hours if I would have let him. He was in boy heaven...dirt, vines, pumpkins, friends. What more is there in life?

I think we found a winner!

It was a little too big to hold so we opted for a "sit on the pumpkin" photo.

We went with the intent of getting one for each of the boys but ended up with a truck load of pumpkins instead. We had such a great time with our friends at the pumpkin patch and are so grateful for their generosity. Thanks Shay and Jeremy!!

Who Needs Meat...

...when you can eat feet?!?

Quirky Me

I've been tagged by my good pal Steph to share with the blogging world some of my quirks. This thought scares me a little. Exactly how much do I want people to know about my weird idiosyncrasies? Oh, well. I am who I am. Just be warned. That's all I've got to say about that.

Rules: List 6 quirks that you have and then tag 6 other people to list their quirks. Easy enough. Here we go.

Quirk #1: After 8 years I still have silverware in the original plastic sleeves in my silverware drawer. For the first two years only the silverware that was on the top of the box for show was used....one big spoon, one little spoon, one big fork, one little fork, and one knife. The knife we shared or the other person used a steak knife. I really don't like doing dishes. I believe that the more dishes that are available to use the more dishes there are to wash. Yes, now I have a dishwasher which makes washing dishes a little less laborious. I still, however, don't like loading and unloading.

Quirk #2: I eat my Fruit Loops/Tootie Fruities by color. Yellow (because it's a happy color) is first, then orange, purple, green, red, and blue.

Quirk #3: I almost never cut the security tags off my clothes that say "Remove before washing or wearing". I used to leave them in Jaxon's clothes as well, until Brian pointed them out to Jaxon now ALL tags bother Jaxon. Go figure. I hope there isn't a cancer-causing agent in those tags. Really I am just too lazy to walk into the other room to get scissors to cut off the tags. Who has time?

Quirk #4: I lay in bed some nights and think in text. What? For example the phrase "I hope I still have friends after they read this" would be "4 0 4673 0 #4 78455 0 4283 0 3743637 0 23837 0 8439 0 7323 0 8447" It makes my brain tired so I can go to sleep.

Quirk #5 I don't eat mayonnaise or miracle whip....on anything. Not sandwiches, not in salads. Nada. Zilch. Uh huh. My sandwiches are dry. No potato salad, macaroni salad, chicken salad sandwiches for me, thank you. I made the mistake of calling it "White death in a jar" once in front of Brian's family. I'm afraid I won't live that down! It's a personal choice...like buttering your bread. Some do it...I don't.

Quirk #6 Eating food at other's homes (and some restaurants) gives me a little anxiety....until I have eaten there enough to know what to expect. I am a very picky eater and food scares me if I didn't make it myself (omitting all nasty things like onions, peppers, and until recently, tomatoes). I appreciate the restaurants that list the ingredients with the entree so I can politely say "no thank you" to the onions, mayo, etc. instead of looking like a child picking my sandwich a part and placing unwanted items on the side of plate. My mother would be so proud!

I feel a little better (unless I loose all of my friends, in which case I would feel worse). It's kind of like the whole "the first step to recovery is admitting you have a problem" thing.

Tag! You're It: Katee, Michelle, Kelly, Heidi, Kristen, Melisa...and anyone else who wants to play!!