Jackson's latest funnies...

I can't believe Jackson turns 4 a week from today! Time is starting to go by so fast the older he gets especially because he is learning so much and becoming so independent. I know I say it all the time but he gets funnier every day I think. He is always trying to do what Nate and I are doing. I guess he has watched me hang up the laundry way too much because this is what I saw when I came into his room one day after I told him to clean up his room. He took all these dirty clothes out of his laundry basket and even hung up his shorts on hangers. It is a constant battle to get Jackson to wear anything besides these shorts and t-shirts so he thought if he hung them up that he was doing the laundry and they were all clean to wear again. (and No I don't hang up his shorts if you are wondering).

 This band aid story is hilarious! At first glance you would think this band aid was for a bloody nose or the zit on his nose... but no! His nose was bleeding from the scab he created by first picking his nose too much. Then Jackson picked that same scab later during one of his picking episodes and it was bleeding pretty good. Nate and I can be softies when it comes to our kids getting hurt but when it has to do with him bleeding because of his habits of picking his nose or biting his fingernails we go all out! Nate had the idea to put a band-aid on it and I acted upon it. Jackson was excited at first until he realized the joke was on him! After he knew we were joking he started to cry and ripped the band-aid off... that's when the soft side of parenting came back into play and the joke was over. Sorry Jacks, but the picture was too good not to get!

 This kid loves Cheetos!! He'd eat the whole big bag if I'd let him. Well Nana is famous now for having the little bags of chips that she lets the boys take as we leave her house. It seems like we are always leaving at night and I don't want Jackson eating his chips that late so I have him save them until the next day. This incident was the day after and I let him eat them as a snack and told him he could get them out of the pantry but to make sure he was at the table. It was too quiet so as I walked into the kitchen this is what I saw. Jackson in total meditation staring out the back window enjoying his Cheetos- foot propped up on the table and everything. Even take notice of how he laid his blanket on the back of the chair! I took this picture without him even knowing I was there and once the camera flash went off he was totally caught off guard confirming to me his state of deep thought.

 This isn't anything too out of the norm for Jackson but just another one of his creative outfits as we were about to go play outside on one of our recent warm days we have been able to enjoy finally. Darth Vader is a new addition to his rotation of his 5 favorite t-shirts, the boots are a great choice to ride bikes with but my favorite is his candy necklace for an added accessory!

 This isn't a funny story but just a picture to remind me how smart this little guy is! Jackson is always finding numbers and letters in the silliest things. This picture was taken as he was eating an apple the other day. He made the number 8 all by himself and was so excited to show me.

Another fun Mommy pay day has been the recent phone calls or comments I have gotten from Jackson's primary teachers or leaders. They always have the nicest and most positive things to say about him participating in class... like he is so good at saying the prayer and volunteering to help out or even answering the questions with the right answers... and not just the typical primary answers either. I would like to take credit for the knowledge he has but the older he gets and the more in depth his answers and testimony gets on things that I haven't even talked to him about reconfirms to me that he was born with it or he is doing great at soaking up everything his awesome primary teachers are teaching him. 

Jacks we love you so much! Even though you act out and whine about almost everything we are so proud of you! You are such a smart kid and we love your desire to learn new things. For the most part you are such a good big brother to Andersen and I love watching you give him random hugs and kisses throughout the day. You are always making me and Dad laugh with your funny sayings, but yet you are so mature for your age that we can have conversations with you that most 4 year olds (in a week) would never have with their parents. Thanks for being my little buddy and still wanting to cuddle with me. I hope some of these things you are doing during this stage of life lasts forever because I know I am going to miss your 3 year stage like crazy.

Tubing with the Christensen's

A few weeks ago I saw a good deal for 1/2 off passes to go tubing at Solder Hollow in Midway and I couldn't pass it up. Lucky for us some of our neighbors wanted to join us for a fun family outing. Last Friday we met up there for the 4-6 pm session. After signing forms, getting our tags (that they don't even check), and getting these munchkins all bundle up we were ready for some tubing!

 Because the little boys under age 3 couldn't go on the hill us moms stayed at the bottom to play while the dads took the boys for their first run. Andersen didn't know what to think of it all, but Parker loved every second of Alison spinning him around on the tube and playing in the snow.

 I wasn't sure what Jackson would think of the hill since he tends to be really cautious with EVERYTHING especially things relating to speed and down hill just like his mom.

Once he got to the bottom all worries were gone because he was smiling from ear to ear and the first thing he said was "Lets do it again!" Round 2 us moms took the boys down the hill. I was so excited to see Jackson's reaction.

 I think the ride up the hill lasts longer than the ride down. Here is the ride up.

 Here we are ready to go down...

 and here is Jackson's cute face on the ride down! If only you could here the WAHOO he was screaming the whole way down!

We continued with round 3 and 4 switching back and forth. Come Round 5 Andersen was content with Daddy so Nate let me take the last run for the night with Jackson while the Christensen's dared to take the whole family and hope they wouldn't notice Parker not being technically old enough to ride. Parker handled it like and champ and no one even knew.

 What a fun two hours that went by so fast! It was perfect weather with good company. We finished the night at the Dairy Keen in Heber for dinner and then came back home for the night. Thanks Christensens!

I don't get why my boys think feminine hygiene products are more fun to play with than their own toys. Its a daily battle to keep Andersen away from these while I am getting ready but finally one day I let him have them so I could get ready faster. He was so excited that he finally succeeded in his goal of snatching the pack of pads from the cupboard that he ran away laughing hysterically. I couldn't help but follow the little thief with the camera to capture him in all his glory. 

Can you see the excited through this cheeser smile?

As the excitement wore off he got more brave and the mischief kicked in. He loved dumping them all over the floor.

He was so proud of himself!

And then the sweet little Andersen comes out and he starts cleaning up his own mess.

Counting my blessings...

It was Thursday evening of March 3rd that I got a message from my mom telling me my dad just survived a pulmonary embolism and was in the hospital. I instantly had a reality check and was counting my blessings that my Dad was still around. I was in shock thinking he had such a close call with death, but happy that he listened to his body and reacted accordingly so he could receive the necessary medical attention. My dad was in the hospital until Saturday doing multiple chest x-rays, multiple blood draws for testing and inhaling extra oxygen to compensate for the lack of oxygen from the blood clots. After much thought of what I should do for a visit, I decided to go out Sunday morning. I knew I would have the kids and the added volume could interfere with him being able to relax, but I all I wanted to do was see him in person rather than hear updates over the phone. He spent most of our visit there laying in bed, but it didn't matter to me and the boys because it was just nice to be there and know he was ok. While we were visiting my parents we got to briefly celebrate my Mom's birthday as well. 2 days later I was back on the road to come home but I was happy to see my dad improving in strength and spirit. Never has a visit to Colorado been more meaningful because after being that close to losing my Dad I was grateful I got the opportunity to give him a hug and let him know how much my family and I loved him. I would be one sad and lost little girl had I lost my Dad last week.

A week later, test results are in and my dad will be on coumadin for life due to a blood disorder. He has an abundance of factor VIII meaning his blood clots too much and if he doesn't make the blood thinner through medication he could be in a repeat situation. Thank goodness this was only a scare and not the real thing because now he knows what he needs to do. I couldn't imagine losing him and never knowing what caused this all. We love you Dad and I am hoping we have many more years to tell you that. Thanks for being such a great Dad and Grandpa!

Meet Sister Michaelis

In 2002, almost  9 years ago, I met this cute girl the first few weeks I was down in Cedar City for my freshman year of College at SUU. She was serving as a Sister Missionary in our area. Long story short, and a few meetings and interviews later, I was on my way to get baptized during Christmas break. We instantly connected and I felt like she was a great friend! While I was home for the break, she got transferred up towards Provo and I didn't get to talk to her much after that. I was so sad she was gone! Over the years, she was so good to call every once in awhile to keep in touch. Thanks to Facebook and her twin sister living in Lehi, we got to finally reunite last week. I was anxious to see her again, but once we were together it felt just like old times minus the missionary badge. She is such an amazing person to me and I am grateful our lives crossed paths all those years ago.

Not only am I grateful for her friendship, but without her service and truly caring about me as a person and not just the baptism, I feel like I wouldn't have all these other wonderful blessings in my life. Here are just a few big ones and I am sure there are many more to come!

Nate and our Temple Marriage

Amazing in-laws

Jackson

Andersen

There are a lot more girls than this now, but I just love this picture and I love serving these young women!

Thank you Sister Michaelis for blessing my life forever!

St. George getaway..

A few weeks ago my friend Megan and her husband Mike invited us to go to St. George with them to see the Parade of Homes. I have always wanted to go, but never do, so it was a good excuse to go and to get away for a few days. We left Friday after Nate did some work and made it down in time to see a few houses before it got too late. We started with the biggest house! It was gorgeous, but too nice to even feel like a home.

After we looked through a couple homes we went to the Pizza Factory for dinner and back to the condo to relax. The next morning we got up, got ready, and off we went to look at more homes. It is always fun to look at all the new ideas and even get some new decorating ideas for the "one day" list. I think Megan's favorite part is trying out all the different bath tubs. She looks so little in these crazy exotic tubs.

 I can't even remember how many homes we walked through on Saturday, but it was quite a few and they all started to look the same to me. So to break up the Parade of Homes, Nate and I decided to head down to Vegas for dinner and some shopping since I had gotten a H&M gift card for Valentine's day. We rolled into to town around 5:00 Vegas time and went straight to Ceasar's Forum Shops. After a few hours of dissapointment at the selection H&M had, we decided to go to dinner. Luckily Vegas has one of my favorite restaurants, Buffalo Wild Wings, to make up for the shopping. We enjoyed a yummy dinner watching the dunk contest on the biggest tv screen I have seen in a long time. Since the closest BWW is on the opposite side of strip and we happened to be by another H&M, we decided to test our luck one more time and see if this other store had a better selection. I was a little happier after that trip but still not the excitement H&M usually provides. I think it was around 10:00 when we decided to make the drive back to St. George. The next morning we shared stores of our evenings with Mike and Megan since they stayed in St. George while we went to Vegas. They had a fun night of spontanity that ended with Mike in a Cash Cube winning some money! So sad we missed it because it sounded pretty entertaining. 

We had such a fun weekend with Mike and Megan, but it is always nice to be home and back with kids... even though I am sure they thoroughly enjoyed their weekend with Nana.

Valentine's Day

It just wouldn't be a holiday around our house without the boys getting spoiled by their Nana! We had Nate's parents over for dinner Sunday night before Valentine's Day. The boys were told if they ate all their food they would get "dessert". Can't you tell these boys were so excited for their presents... best "dessert" in town! Andersen loved his new books and polar bear stuffed animal.

 Jackson also loved his new game and books that came with 3D glasses... and of course the candy!

With Valentine's Day being on a Monday it made for quite a different holiday for Nate and I. Nate had work all day with school all night so I didn't see him all day. My day was filled with teaching for Jackson's preschool Valentine's party, followed by work in the afternoon, and a long night of visits. Rather than staying home without Nate around, I took the boys around to their Grandma's to give them flowers for this special day of love. I loved spending the night with the boys and our families! Definitely a different Valentine's Day than usual, but it was filled with love from all our families. 

 This is Jackson's class right before they were about to give their "Valentine" to their moms as they were picking them up from school. These boys can be crazy but when it comes to them making something for their moms they were so into it and made sure they did the best they could. Their signs say "A handful of love for a very special Mom" with their hands traced and cut out and hearts for decorations. We are missing Jackson M. in this picture unfortunately because he had to leave early to rescue the candy out of his nose. Not your typical preschool experience, but I guess Valentine Bingo wasn't too entertaining and he found his own source of fun by sticking his bingo marker up his nose. These boys are still talking about Jackson M. having candy stuck in his nose.

Jimmer Time

 I am obviously a few weeks behind on my pictures, but I couldn't miss posting these pictures. For Nate's birthday I was lucky enough to snag two extra tickets to the BYU vs. San Diego State game from our friends, Scott and Alison. I am not a huge sports fan, for those that didn't already know, but I couldn't help feel the "Jimmer" love at this game. It probably was the loudest game I have ever been to and it didn't even matter that we were 3 rows from the top because everyone was on their feet. With only attending a few sporting events with Nate a year, this definitely was a good one we picked to go to. Jimmer was on fire that night, scoring 43 points! 

Thanks for the fun night out Christensen's!

Update on the boys...

 This post is one that I dread because it is a total picture overload and it takes forever but they end up being some of my favorite posts to read years from now. I will start with Andersen. He is almost 16 months and getting so much personality. Andersen has 3 out of 4 of his first set of molars {D's in ortho terms} that are starting to make their way in. He loves his books, especially the ones with all the animals so he can make the silly noises while reading it. He is also learning to say a few words. Some of the regulars are DON'T, NO NO, and DADDY. Whenever the garage door opens up he runs to the door yelling DADDY no matter who it is walking in. He recently has been saying Mommy, but still not as clear and direct as Daddy. Andersen also is loving music. He will start moving his body to dance whenever music is on. He tends to do whatever Jackson does, so the things that he is learning are climbing on everything he can and playing with everything he can get his hands on in the bathroom!

He has learned the touch screen on our cell phones already and loves to watch Little Einsteins on Nate's phone. The frustrating part is that he HAS to hold the phone to watch and ends up hitting a bunch of buttons.

 The newest discovery is this hole! Andersen thinks its hilarious to put his finger in his nose. And if we aren't careful he'll try to do the same to our nose.

 My favorite thing right now is what a good sleeper he is. He will go to sleep where ever I need him to. It doesn't matter if we are at church, in the car, nap time or bed time. If he is tired, he will go to sleep! He is such a cuddly baby as long as we have his blanket and binky. And with the combination of those 3 things (tired, blanket and binky) he will lay his head down on our shoulders and fall asleep. A big accomplishment he had was getting rid of the bottle. With Jackson I made him stop at a year, but with Andersen I haven't had the strong desire to get rid of it yet. One day not too long ago, out of the blue I decided it was time... mostly because I was sick of washing bottles! He didn't drink too much milk for a couple of days but after that you would never know he was missing his bottle because he is loving his sippy cup now, especially chocolate milk like his big brother.

Now Jackson on the other hand is learning more than I can keep track of lately! I sometimes forget that he is not even 4, yet he communicates like he is a couple years older than he really is. He is loving his preschool class and is super excited to start up another season of soccer in the next couple of weeks. After soccer we are going to put him in t-ball. I am so excited to watch him play baseball because he will play with his own t-ball stuff at home and he is quite the hitter already. He is doing so well with his letters and numbers, and is starting to remember all the sounds to the letters. I think he is starting to get the concept of reading because he will read to me the letters and sounds but hasn't figured out how they go together quite yet. Another thing he is starting to learn more is the concept of time. He is really good about telling me what numbers are on the clock. He is learning that we read everything left to right, but sometimes when I will ask him what time it is, he gets confused and reads the numbers backwards to me. I am amazed what a people person Jackson is because he is always wanting to be with his friends or have me invite someone over or asks "who is coming over tonight?". Jackson is still into his super heroes and it is very common to see Jackson sleeping or eating in these costumes. He has even asked for Spiderman, Superman, and Iron Man costumes for his birthday coming up in March. I am sure another super hero will be added to the list between now and his birthday though.

Jackson is by far the most silly and crazy one in our family right now. He is always coming up with funny sayings or random ideas to keep him and brother entertained.  The hard part to this age is we are definitely going through major behavioral issues like not listening, not being obedient and follow the rules, not sharing with his brother, whining and talking back to Mom and Dad. But as hard as it is, he is so stinking cute sometimes that it doesn't take long for his little smile to soften our hearts. 

I will admit that I am not a mom that is 100% patient and loving all the time, because these 2 munchkins sure know how to fight and push my buttons. But there are quite a few times through out the day that they are very sweet with each other. I always hope they will be best friends as they grow older and the following pictures give me hope that that can happen even if they do fight and bug each other on a regular basis. These brothers will happily take naps together and this time they were even holding hands. SO CUTE!

 They played all day in this fort together reading books and pretending to have nap time there.

 They will regularly watch movies or cartoons on our bed together.

 

And my personal favorite, as well as Jackson's, is that they love taking baths together. Jackson will refuse to take a bath unless his brother is there with him.

Man you two boys are so stinking cute!! I love your little voices, your little kisses and hugs, and all your silly sayings. I can't wait to see what you boys are like as older kids but I know one day I will miss these sweet innocent smiles and wish for these days back.