The Kool Kotters

Falling leaves

2011-10-27T13:25:00.000-07:00

Caiden and Paxton loved playing in the leaves on this beautiful fall afternoon. I couldn't help but to snap a few pictures of my cute boys. We have had unseasonably warm weather the last month month and a half, but we couldn't be more happy about it! We hate to see summer go!

Caiden would rake up the leaves and then slide into them, giggling all the time!
Caiden wanted Paxton to cover him up with leaves, which he did for a while and then just decided to cover him up with his body!

The boys love their four wheelers!! I think they like the real ones even better, but these are good substitutes.

Fire prevention week

2011-10-10T13:16:00.000-07:00

Jayson really hates that I made him go to this because he misses fire fighting so much, but Caiden really wanted to go and it was so fun for the kids. We got to the fire station early and got in line for fire truck rides right away! Caiden got to sit in the front seat and the driver told him to push the button for the horn, but he was too scared. He loved riding around the block in it though and had a lot of fun at the fire station. The fire engine from the outside.

While we were waiting in line for the fire truck, Smokey came out to greet the kids, as you can see, Paxton was a little timid about meeting the big bear.

While waiting in line, the Air Med helicopter landed in the parking lot-didn't get a pic of that darn it! They had a smoke trailer to practice safe exits in and some bumper car things that would wreck into each other to simulate what it would feel like getting in a head on collision. Pretty fun night!

So much fun when Grandma comes!

2011-10-01T13:01:00.000-07:00

My grandmother had such a good time seeing my mom and sister and me when we visited in April that she was really felt she had to come on more time to Utah to see the rest of the family. She met Caiden when he was three months old and some of the other grand kids when they were small too, but it had been a long while since she had come to Utah-mostly because she was worried about flying alone at her age. She asked my Uncle to accompany her and offered to pay for his plane ticket and he gladly accepted. He has never come to Utah to visit so this was nice too. One Saturday while she was here, I thought it would be fun for all the grand kids to go on the Frontrunner, which is something I figured my grandmother and uncle would enjoy too. We met at the station and boarded the train set for Woods Cross! Upon arrival we walked a few blocks to the A&W for ice cream and root beer floats! The morning was enjoyed by all- the kids loved riding in the train and it was fun to get out in the remaining good weather we were having.

My grandma is such a sweet and wonderful woman-I am so glad she came to visit and hope that my kids can remember their great-grandma too.

What happens when mom does canning?

2011-09-08T12:44:00.000-07:00

As some of you may know, I have two rather good-sized peach trees in my back yard (as well as two apple trees, a cherry tree and grape vines). So when the peaches are ready to harvest, there is a small window I have to can them or make into pies etc. On this particular day, I had to work, but I knew the peaches would go bad if I didn't can them before work. I tried to convince myself that all would be well and the children would be good-what was I thinking! In this first picture, you will notice a small bag of candy corns. They were placed on the counter only after I discovered the two boys downstairs happily snacking on dad's secret stash.The next few examples show just what damage an unattended toddler can do while mom is engaged in anything productive. This would be our laundry room-also the room that our kitty food and cat box reside. I think my purse had been hanging on the door knob, which of course he can reach. I finally had to resort to locking him in his room so that I could finish up and be on time to work. As you can see, even more destruction occurred in here, but at least he is safe and I stay sane while completing a task.Not sure exactly what is on his messy face, but once again, sure is a good thing he is cute!
--Don't you love how he is still in his pajamas too??!! Great parenting on my part today!!--

First week of school!

2011-08-30T12:24:00.000-07:00

Caiden's first day of kindergarten was on August 22, 2011. He was so excited to go and start learning new things! The weather is still nice so at least for the next little while we will be walking to school with our neighbor Tajen who is his same age. Caiden has had a hard time adjusting to going to school everyday-good thing he doesn't have all day kindergarten like some kids!! It is definately going to take some getting used to, but I know he likes it and will learn so much!Little Paxton is starting to be a huge mischeif maker! I remember why I have blocked out the toddler phase from my memory! He is constantly opening drawers or getting into my purse or finding everything he is not supposed to! Good thing toddlers are adorable! I watched my neighbors kids one day for her and loaded them up with some sugar before I sent them home!! These kids are so cute and all four of them played very well together. We always joke that the little girl Cassidy is Caiden's girlfriend, and he doesn't deny it!

My friend Stefanie came to visit form New York (she's the one with black hair sitting next to me) and insisted that the old high school gang got together while she was here. We arranged it all via facebook and all of us could come on the same night, which is amazing since that hasn't happened for about ten years. The most sad thing about it is that all of us minus Stefanie still live very close to one another. This was such a fun night to see everyone and share stories of different trials and triumphs that we've all had over the past several years-it was so easy to just relax back into each other's company. The woman on my right is now my neighbor and she was our favorite teacher in high school. She taught us so much more than just lessons at school. I am so lucky to have her right down the street!

Family Pics

2011-08-26T14:43:00.000-07:00

On my last post I promised some pics of our little family. I know this has been a long time coming, but I just can't ever seem to find the time. Since I know I have so many dedicated readers I apologize about the huge lag time in between posts!

Busy August

2011-08-25T09:32:00.000-07:00

As usual, it seems we have had a crazy busy August. We started by celebrating our tenth anniversary! We stayed at a bed and breakfast in Provo and had a nice dinner at the Olive Garden. It was our first night together without kids since right before Paxton was born! We decided we need to do that way more often! It was super nice to have some alone time and not wake up to kids in our bed! The very next weekend on the 6th of August, we crashed my best friend's family reunion and went boating with her and her family! Thanks to my sister and her husband for providing the boat! Becky and her family came to visit with her family, but I managed to steal her away for a few hours of fun on the lake. The most fun we had was on a huge tube that held three people. My sister is such a good boat driver and knew just when to turn the boat and whip the tube around over the wake! So much fun we couldn't stop smiling and laughing! The above picture is me, Becky, her daughter Anna (who loved this even though Caiden was terrified of it and wouldn't even sit on it!) and her husband Stephan.
After getting back from boating, we worked for two days then packed up the trailer again and headed up to our favorite camping spot just outside Bear Lake. We had a pretty big group with us this time including my parents and our friends and their parents and sister's family. We love to take the four wheelers on all the trails and the kids never seem to get tired of it (even though the two little ones fall asleep while riding.They think they are big enough to go for a ride! Paxton and Wyatt are only three weeks apart in age. Hopefully they will be good buddies!
Beautiful Bear Lake!

This past weekend, August 19 and 20, we bought a new vehicle, had some visitors from Texas and went on a hike to Bridal Vail Falls in Provo! My new vehicle is a fabulous mini van that I'm sure I will be excited about one day. In preparation for the future, we decided it would be best to sell my Camry and get a Toyota Sienna. It does drive nice, but I despise it! I never wanted to be a minivan mom, but oh well. And for all you wondering minds-no-I am not pregnant.....yet.

Our good friends JR and Jennifer came to visit their family and we managed to steal them away for an afternoon and evening! Jayson and JR went mountain biking and Jen and I ran a few errands with the boys. Paxton totally loved Jen and for days now if I say her name he will start looking around for her. Hopefully my kids didn't scare her into never wanting to become a mommy! Ha Ha! In their defense, they were actually pretty good that day. We had a bar-b-q that night and then we forced Jennifer to take our family pictures, which I will post once she sends them to me! Our hike to Bridal Vail falls was really fun. It wasn't much of a hike, more of a little walk, but that's ok cause it was hot that day and Paxton really hated being in the little back pack thing. We got to the falls and played in the freezing cold water for a while, which both boys really liked a lot!
Yay for summer fun in Utah-you can't beat the recreation here in the summer!!!

Jayson got busy one weekend and decided to take out one of our many trees in the back yard and replace it with a fire pit! Caiden loves to sit out by it and roast marshmallows. In this picture, Jayson and his parents and grandparents are enjoying some root beer floats!

Long holiday weekend!

2011-07-08T14:21:00.000-07:00

I got to have four days off for the 4th this year! I was so excited because it was the exact opposite last year-I worked every single day including on the 4th! We started our fabulous weekend by roasting marshmallows in our new fire pit that Jayson built in our backyard! I didn't think to take a picture of that, but maybe it will show up on a later post.
On Saturday, we got all our gear ready and took off to Pine View dam to go kayaking with our friends! Our neighbor works for Lifetime products and gets to rent out the kayaks for free. He gets to take them so that we can give our feedback on how well we liked/didn't like about the boats. It was nice to be out in the sun on the water! The kids loved it too once they got over how annoying it is to wear a life jacket. Caiden, Paxton and Cassidy.

I have no pictures of us on the water cause I didn't want to risk ruining my camera, but my friend had a waterproof one that she will hopefully share some shots with us. After our boat rides, we raced home so Jayson could take Caiden to the demolition derby-he said he loved it! Then we headed over to the neighbors annual block party and watched some awesome fireworks with the neighbors! Utah finally allowed fireworks that shoot up 150 ft! Brought back memories of being in TN!

Sunday we had a fun family dinner with my parents and siblings-food was good and so was the company. I didn't think to take pics of that event either-oh well.

Monday morning, we went to the parade here in West Point. It's not a big parade but it has lots of candy for the kids and tractors for my dad to check out! He has come with me the last few years cause he loves them so much! He actually bought a tractor recently and is going to fix it up so he can ride in it next year! After the fireworks, we headed to the park for the festivities and I entered Paxton in the baby contest. I had wanted to last year, but I had to work. There were about 30 babies total and as they read off the winners for the different age ranges, I knew I wouldn't hear his name called because when it was his turn to be judged, I sat him down and he started to cry immediately! Well once they named the 4 winners, they did a winner for the chubbiest baby and then one for the saddest! To my amazement, Paxton's name was called-I guess he had a strategy to win!

Saddest baby my eye! He knew exactly how to win that thing!

All his spoils! Not too bad!

First hair cut!

2011-06-22T22:25:00.001-07:00

Paxton finally got enough hair to cut! Jayson took Caiden to get his cut and decided Paxton needed one too! His hair is so blonde it's almost white! I can't believe I have such cute blonde hair, blue eyed boys-I'm so lucky!Jayson took this picture with his phone, I can't believe the quality is so good on the phones now days.

Summer finally arrived!

2011-06-22T21:59:00.000-07:00

Tonight on the news they announced that it was the hottest day of the year! We hit 90 degrees today and it was beautiful! Jayson and I got to spend a kid-free day at Lagoon for my work party. The boys spent a fun day at Aunt Kim's with cousins and grandma too! They sure do love their family! I took this picture the other day when the boys were enjoying some popsicles. Caiden had his preschool program a few weeks back so I thought I would post some pics of that. He had two little speaking parts and they sang a few songs. Nothing that was a really big deal, but he was very proud. He is also super excited to go to kindergarten! We have started to try and teach him how to read and he is doing ok with that. He can get some of the smaller three or four letter words. I have to hand it to the teachers though cause it is hard to explain why or how some of the letters make the sounds they do. Stupid English language!

I think they were singing in this picture, but I'm not sure-don't you love that he is the tallest! The boy on his right is our neighbor's kid-he has short parents so he is doomed, I think he was the shortest in the class.

Do your kids love pictures too?

2011-06-22T21:51:00.000-07:00

I always have this crazy idea that I can take a wonderful picture to remeber special events such as birthday, christmas, easter, etc. Too bad my kids have a different idea just about every time I get the camera out! These were the only two pics I attempted and then gave up with the idea of ever having a good picture of my two very active boys.

Oh well, they are still cute and I love them anyways.

To grandmother's house we go!

2011-04-18T19:21:00.000-07:00

My awesome, sweet grandmother is 87 years old and she is so cute! I hadn't been to her house since Caiden was three months old so I decided to join my mother on her annual trip out to Connecticut this year. I brought along a little extra baggage (my sister Cailin and Paxton) and over all, we had a pretty good time! We mostly just relaxed and visited with grandma who told us a lot of stories and we enjoyed discussing lots of childhood memories. The most fun was making new memories with Paxton and my sweet grandma and hilarious uncle Alan. My grandma is so good with kids and she loved holding him before he'd wriggle out of her grasp and wander away. I'm glad both my kids are fearless and will go to anyone without much of a fight.

There was a beautiful daffodil field that we stopped to pose for some pics by. There were hundreds of these pretty flowers growing in a field nearby my grandma's house.

This was taken on Sunday after church. I wanted to get a four-generation picture while I was there. I must say, I do see some family resemblance until you look at the little boy-guess he takes after his dad!

Paxton with all his Easter egg spoils! They were all filled with money so he was not as happy as he could have been, but it was nice for my cousin to go to all the trouble to do an egg hunt for the kids!

He didn't run and gather up as many as he could, but he had fun whenever he would spot one! It didn't take him long to catch on!

Eating at Crabby-Al's! Yum!

This was my birthday party! My uncle (who is a far better cook than I am) made a delicious lasagna and my mom and grandma whipped up a cheesecake for me! I never go hungry at grandma's house! I'm sure I gained some weight in the week that I was there!

Snowman in April!

2011-04-11T14:41:00.000-07:00

Yes, it is true that in Utah it can be 70 on day and 40 then next-I'm not even making that up! But I try to be of the attitude that when you have lemons you make lemonade so I got us all bundled up and we made a pretty good snowman! Paxton loved it but was beyond freezing by the time I dragged him in kicking and screaming.

"I have hair."

2011-04-07T09:41:00.000-07:00

Paxton has always had very little hair and what he does have is very blond and hard to see. Well we wanted to prove to the world that he does have hair-and even if he didn't we would love his cute big head anyways!! Ha Ha! I am also glad to report that he has not had any major illnesses(knock on wood) since the last post. Good thing he is cute! Right now he is sitting on the floor stiring up four pieces of cereal in a big bowl and pretending to eat them, hen he'll hold the spoon up to my mouth and chomp his mouth-that is one of his favorite things to play. Maybe he'll be a chef when he grows up.

Dinosaur Park!!

2011-04-07T09:32:00.000-07:00

Caiden got to go to the Dinosaur Park for preschool on March 23. He loves his preschool friend and was so excited to go see the dinosaurs. We went therw when he was two, but I'm sure he doesn't remember that and he seemed to like it much more this go round. They got to listen to a presentation about dinosaurs then make their own puppet. We stayed and looked at all the dinosaurs outside for about an hour and a half even though it wasn't the best weather. At least it wasn't snowing or raining on us, but the wind did make it a little cold! I took Paxton to the sitter early so that it was just a special day for me and Caiden!

Sick of being sick!

2011-03-17T10:13:00.000-07:00

To start out on a more positive note than I will end this post with, my friend (Hi Brooke!) took this adorable pic of Paxti and I think he is stinkin cute.

The following is a little time line of all the fun we have been having this winter....

10/09/10- Paxton-ear infection. Augmentin for 10 days
11/20/10-Paxton-ear infection#2. Amoxicillin for 10 days
11/24/10-Paxton breaks out in hives. Prednisone for three days.
12/27/10-Selina- sinus infection. Augmentin for ten days.
01/18/11-Paxton-ear infection #3. Amoxicillin for ten days.
01/18/11-Selina -sore throat and yeast infection from the augmentin. Diflucan and Omnicef.
01/24/11-Paxton-hives again (guess he is for sure allergic to amoxicillin) starts a z-pack cause the ear infection is still not gone.
2/21/11-Caiden-strep throat and pink eye. Keflex for 10 days and eye drops.
03/01/11-Paxton-influenza B.
03/04/11-Caiden-influenza B.
03/15/11- Paxton-RSV.

We are very tired of winter and tired of germy little day care children passing everything onto my kid. A note to anyone who takes their children to day care-please leave them home if they are sick and take them to the doctor if they have something instead of act like nothing is wrong! A note to all the stay at home mom's-be thankful that you can be in the place you are.

Chuck-E-Cheese

2011-02-17T19:54:00.000-08:00

So for those of you who go to Chuck-E-Cheese a lot, this might not seem like a big deal, but for Caiden it was. Way back about a year ago we promised Caiden we would take him to Chuck-E Cheese if he was dry at night for a whole month straight. Well he finally managed that so we held true to our promise and took him for a night of fun, fun, fun!Whenever he saw a commercial for Chuck E Cheese on TV he would always ask me if there was a real mouse there. My reply was that I didn't know and we would have to go there one day and find out. He was so happy to see that there was a real mouse there and he was nice enough to come over and pose for a picture with him! Best night ever!
I think Jayson had just as much fun playing the games as Caiden did. He did really well at ski ball and basketball, which Caiden was ok with cause it earned him more tickets towards his fabulous prize- a bendy straw and an Air Head candy!
Paxton seemed to like all the excitement too! The pizza was not too bad, but overpriced and they did have a lot of games to play, but again, overpriced. We spent a lot of money, but Caiden had lots of fun and besides, he deserved it cause it's tough to not wet the bed right?

Sledding!

2011-02-17T19:09:00.000-08:00

We missed a really big storm while we were in Arizona, but luckily the snow stuck around for a while and I decided not to be a stick in the mud and took my kids sledding for Paxton's birthday. This is how the event went:
Preparation time (putting on coats, gloves, boots, etc): 20 min
Drive time: 10 min round trip
Actual sledding time: about 25 min.
Paxton crying from being cold, wet, and hungry: 10 min
We actually went sledding again today and Paxton loved it even more! I made sure he was as warm as possible, but he actually got down and rolled in the snow more than the first time so he still got wet and cold, but he smiled a lot more today than last time.

Paxton turns one!

2011-02-17T18:52:00.000-08:00

Paxton had his first birthday on Jan 11! He is growing so big and fast that we can hardly believe it! He is 29.5 inches tall and weighs in at 20 lbs 11 oz. He is about 25th percentile for height and weight. His head, on the other hand, is 90th percentile! It's like an orange on a toothpick! Ha Ha. He could only take a few steps on his birthday, but now he can go everywhere and get into everything! He can blow kisses and say, Hi and Uh Oh, and clap his hands. We couldn't be more proud-even if he does have a huge cranium! Opening a fun present from grandma and grandpa.

Having his first big bite of birthday cake-Yum!

Trip to Arizona!

2011-01-08T11:54:00.000-08:00

We went to Arizona for a week and to celebrate the new year. We stayed with Jayson's friend Chris and his wife Kristen and their girls. It would be nice to say we worked on our tans, but unfortunately the cold front that hit utah also hit Arizona. It was still warmer than Utah, but not short-wearing weather by any means. On our way back, we stopped and stayed in Vegas for the night, but didn't do much anything else-we probably would have stayed the next day, but it was snowing when we woke up so we just headed home. The next couple of pics are of hoover dam-pretty impresive. The first one is the bridge that you now drive over so you can avoid the windy old road that you used to take. It was pretty impressive. Paxton learned to go up and down stairs while we were there, which kept both him and I busy. Jayson playing night night with Katie. That's a fun game-you get to pretend to take a nap! How nice would that be!

For new years, we celebrated with Kristen's family at a party while a sitter stayed home with all the sleeping kids-it was great fun!!

Christmas

2010-12-25T11:02:00.000-08:00

This is the tree on Christmas morning! Paxton woke up about 6:30am and we fed him and we were so excited we couldn't go back to sleep! I totally expected Caiden to wake up early, but he didn't-we had to wake him up at 7:30 cause we just couldn't wait any longer!

We knew the phone would be a big hit! He is constantly picking up my phone and "talking" on it. he loved it!

Caiden can't wait to test out the sled! He also got a playdough fun factory, transformer, and the game Operation, just to name a few. I had to work from two to ten so when I left for work the boys all headed to Grandma's house for dinner and more presents!

Jayson got me a brand new shiney blue mountain bike! It was totally unexpected and a great surprise. I hope I can find the time to ride it with him this summer. Jayson got a blue ray player and a shirt and tie. It was a pretty good day!

Caiden turns 5!!!

2010-12-20T10:14:00.000-08:00

Caiden was so excited to celebrate his birthday this year cause he was turning 5!! We sent out the invites to his cousins to join us for a party at the Fun Center (bounce houses, skating, and pirates cove for those of you not knowing what the Fun Center is). We got to the Fun Center that night and to our dismay, it was closed for a private party! I was furious, but luckily kids can roll with the punches so we regrouped and decided Arctic Circle would have to work as a back up! Caiden wanted a scooby doo birthday cake so I looked to the trusty Internet for ideas! He absolutely loved it!

I love to decorate and make these fun cakes-makes me feel like a real mom! The biggest pain about this cake was changing colors-it was more time consuming than I thought it would be, but definitely turned out cute!

Paxton with Grandma Cathy enjoying ice cream as usual.

Present time!! He got this cool steering wheel with cars that shoot out of it from Aryana and Josie.

Grandpa Wayne sent along this dump truck and transformer.

Jayson and I got him a bunch of nerf guns off KSL for really cheap! They were a huge hit and all the kids had to take turns shooting them! He loved them! Grandma and Grandpa Wadsworth gave him a target to shoot at. Also, not pictured was some dinosaurs from Brooke and some awesome Tonka coloring books from Grandma and Grandpa Rasmussen!

Love this pic of Caiden's face! Wish Paxton was old enough to play with the guns too!

First Annual Cousins Sleepover!!

2010-12-17T09:58:00.000-08:00

My sweet mom thought it would be fun to have a cousin sleepover at her house-she sent out invitations to the kids, made them all a set of matching pajamas and invited Santa too! We all had dinner first and then Santa came to surprise the kids! This was a really fun night because even though we all live within about 15 min of each other, we don't get together very often. The kids love to play together and my mom was worried that they would all be too excited to go to sleep, but all went well and she has plans to do a second annual cousin sleepover! This is all the cousins in thier matching pajamas-we had to take Paxton home with us cause my mom thought he would be too hard-can't say I blame her for that! You never know if he's going to make it through the night, although I am pleased to report that he has made a vast improvement!

Little Paxti enjoying his first candy cane!

Mom had Santa give the kids candycanes and their pajamas-he even knew all their names and something about the kids too so it was extra special!

Thanksgiving

2010-11-25T09:46:00.000-08:00

On thangskiving morning, Paxton still had the ugly rash and I think it was looking it,s worst here in this photo! Poor kid looked awful but didn't seem to complain about it much so it must not have hurt very bad. Thank goodness for benadryl and steroids! The rash disappeared a few days later and we still don't know what it was from. We know it's not milk cause he's had lots of that since with no such reaction-weird kid!

So I got Thanksgiving off work and decided to play the host this year! We had my parents and Jayson's parents and grandparents over for lunch at 1:00. The turkey was great and so were all the other fixins! We had a very enjoyable day!

Poor little guy.

Getting ready to dig in!!

crafty

2010-11-24T08:30:00.000-08:00

Caiden seems to do better if I spend some time with him on my days off while Paxton is sleeping. He is better for me and not so naughty. So I have been trying to play a game or do play dough or make stuff with him. This week I decided to make monsters with him. He has also been doing a lot of crafts in preschool this month. Here is a sampling....This is a turkey leg hat and it one he made at preschool. They all came out the other day wearing these and it was pretty funny especially cause you couldn't tell what they were until you got close up.This is the big monster that we madefollowed by little monsters the next day. Caiden really likes to help make stuff with me-even when I'm cooking. He'll say, "I wanna make with you!" and he'll run and get his stool from the bathroom so he can reach the stove or counter top and help me stir or dump in ingredients.

Notice the batman sweatshirt-can't keep it off of him!

Allergy?

2010-11-24T08:09:00.000-08:00

I thought little Paxton would be able to tolerate milk since he is now 10 months old so last night I tested my theory and gave three ounces of milk mixed with formula before he went to sleep. As it turns out, Paxton is definitely allergic, which is weird cause he has eaten yogurt and ice cream with no such reaction. This morning when he woke up I got him out of bed and took off his pajamas to discover this....
Hives from head to toe! Poor little guy. He is allergic to bananas and the whole wheat cereal too, but never had a reaction like this! I will definitely not be giving him peanut butter any time soon and when I do, I'll be parked in the hospital parking lot in case he goes into anaphylaxis! (thanks for that idea Becky) It's just one thing after the next with this kid!

Sleeping

2010-11-22T10:16:00.000-08:00

I have always been a big believer in sleep. My mom tells me I was the best little napper when I was little. I would tell her when I wanted to take a nap and just go to sleep. So it is not surprising that for the last year (or more) I have been very cranky more often than not due to lack of sleep. So sorry for Jayson and my kids! It's not like I hadn't tried to get the baby to sleep-I tried several different methods, but nothing worked!
So two weeks ago I had decided that Paxton would sleep through the night if it killed me! I took away the pacifier and I pretty much stopped breast feeding. I was going to make this baby sleep!
What I did was this: let him fall asleep at night without feeding him or giving him the pacifier to start with. When he woke up, I would let him cry for five minutes then go in and lay him back down and pat his back. I would then leave the room and if necessary let him cry for ten minutes and repeat-increasing by five minutes each time. Only one night did I give in and feed him, but that is it.
Jayson slept with Caiden in our bedroom downstairs so that they would get their rest. I am happy to report that Paxton has slept all night 4 out of 14 times now! To many of you this may not seem like much but to us it is huge considering he had previously only slept all night about 4 times his whole life. Last night I got home from work and went to sleep about midnight and was so happy that I did not wake up to my children until about 7 this morning! Seven straight hours of sleep was so very needed and appreciated!!

Halloween 2010

2010-11-10T09:55:00.000-08:00

Caiden wanted to be the same thing as last year for Halloween, but this year (thanks to a neighbor friend) he got an awesome Batman mask instead of one drawn on by mommy. He begged me to be Batgirl last year, but I didn't want to be pregnant Batgirl so I declined. Well, this year I had no excuses so I made a sad version of a Batgirl costume and we hit the streets! Maybe next year we can convince Jayson to be the Joker! I bought Paxton a set of pajamas that doubled as a skeleton costume-he was comfortable, cute, and he glowed in the dark!Grandma and Grandpa Wadsworth and Uncle Mike got to come hang out with us that night. We got to eat soup and it gave Jayson and I the opportunity to trick-or-treat with Caiden while they stayed home with Paxton and answered the door! I love our neighborhood for trick-or-treating! There are so many kids and most of the adults dress up too-it's like a big party in the streets! The picture above is of all the spoils Caiden got and Paxton is trying to steal! Caiden still gets tired pretty quickly, but that's ok with us-he doesn't need all that junk anyways. He still has quite a bit left too. We put it in the pantry and he forgets about it.
Cute little bones and a Batman!

Pumpkin carving!

2010-11-10T09:47:00.000-08:00

I can't remember the last time I carved a pumpkin and ever since Caiden got his pumpkin on the field trip he was asking me when he could carve it! With some hesitation I pulled out a knife so we could get the job done. Of course Caiden was a little mad that I would not give him free reign with the knife, but I knew how that would end up so I let him pick a face and I carved it for him. Previous to actually carving the pumpkin, Caiden drew all over it and drew a face on it for me to cut-that is what all the black marks are on the pumpkin if you look really close. The finished product! Another "fun" thing was to put a candle in it-Caiden wanted to be the one to light it too-not happenin!

Black Island Farm Field Trip

2010-11-10T09:29:00.000-08:00

On October 20th we had the opportunity to go to Black Island Farms with Caiden's pre-school class. It was a beautiful day and perfect for going on a hayride! Caiden was so excited! It was good to meet some of the other parents and I was glad I could arrange my work schedule to allow me to be there with him. They had a lot of fun things for the kids to do and we spent about two hours there (we could have spent more if I wouldn't have had to go to work). This is Caiden going down the biggest slide there-he did this several times! This is a picture of the "hayride" with him and his buddy Cole. One of the first things Caiden noticed was that there was no actual hay, but he got over it quickly. He always talks about his buddy Cole so it was fun to meet him. Turns out, I went all through school with Cole's dad and to high school with his mom! I think they will go to kindergarten together too so that will be fun.

The tractor ride took us around the farm and we looked at carrot and onion plants before arriving at the pumpkin patch where the kids got to pick out their own pumpkin. He is such a poser!

I think this one is really cute of the boys together. I tried to make this a special day for just Caiden, but I couldn't resist getting a pic of them together by the pumpkins.

Where does the time go?

2010-10-05T20:17:00.000-07:00

I can't believe a month goes by so fast! We had our last camp trip on the 18-19. We mostly did it to pick up the trailer. We had a good dinner, but a relaxing night was not what we got! Paxton had such a hard time falling asleep and he woke up several times that night. His darn three front teeth will not come in-they are still not in yet!

Jayson celebrated his 30th birthday on Saturday the 25th. He went to Applebees with his dad and sister and then on Sunday he had dinner at his mom's house. I would have joined him, but I worked that weekend-he told me not to take it off cause he wasn't excited about turning 30! He is also still doing fire school, which he mostly enjoys, but it is hard work and stresses him out!

I have started a new position at work doing paper work/billing. I am the assistant to the MDS coordinator. It is a nice change, but a lot to learn and a lot of confusion right now. I am only doing this two days a week and working the floor the other two days. I figure it will be good experience, and I get to work more closely with the management so it's pretty good.

Caiden is loving preschool and is learning new things everyday. I love to ask him what he learned-sometimes he comes up with something and sometimes he doesn't. He learned the nursery rhyme "Jack and Jill" last week and he can recite the whole thing! He is really good at riding his bike now and he loves being a big brother.

Paxton is growing bigger everyday! I tried getting some pics of him climbing up on things-he has lots of bumps and bruises on his head. I also tried to get a pic showing off his cute little teeth-two on the bottom and one fang on the top. It's a fang cause it's not the tooth in the center that came in first, it's the one right next to it. Pretty funny looking!

Growing Up!

2010-09-09T10:27:00.000-07:00

Caiden loves to dress up as Batman! This is is costume from last year and this picture was taken last week when the weather outside was about 90 degrees! I have managed to keep the outfit off of him for most of the summer, but sometimes it is not worth the fight-if he wants to be hot that is ok with me! So he came in the other day and leaned up the wall like this trying to play all tough! Stinkin cracks me up!

So I failed to mention on my last post that Jayson started fire school. Not the best timing, but how could I tell him no after I just spent the last three years in school. Here in Utah, you have to have your EMT certification and your firefighter certifications before they let you be part time (volunteer) on a department. So the first week went something like this...I worked from 2-10 on Mon, Tues and Thursday-Jayson had school on Mon and Wed from 6-10. My mom watched the boys on Monday night while we were both gone-Thanks Mom!!-We saw each other on Friday night and Saturday night for a few hours and then I worked sun from 2-10 after going to church in the morning. Then the next week wasn't as bad, but this is going to be rough! That's ok he'll be done in June so no big deal! Doesn't he look cute with my boys hanging all over him in his EMT uniform!

Yesterday was Caiden's first day of preschool! He was so very excited to start school and have something to do in the mornings! He loves to learn and I know he'll do great. He wasn't very excited to let me take this picture, but I forced him to let me anyways. He is suppossed to be holding a bear, but refused to take one of the many he has because he "just loves this mouse so much". They are learning about bears this month I guess. He says he learned the leader song and then he played outside-that is a pretty good report coming from my child!

On top of starting school yesterday, I decided it was time to get rid of the training wheels on Caiden's bike so last night when Jayson was gone to school, I got out the tools and took them off. After only a few minutes of practice, I let go and he was sailing! Both of us were so excited! He practiced last night for about an hour and a half until it was time for bed. First thing this morning he wanted to go out and ride it some more! He got out ther about 7:30 and didn't get off his bike until almost 10:30! He can start and stop really well today-he looks like he's been riding a two-wheeler for weeks! This morning he kept saying, "I am so proud of myself!" Funny kid.

August fun

2010-09-07T10:18:00.000-07:00

The month of August was really fun for us! We celebrated our anniversary, we got to go on two campouts with our family and Paxton got his two first teeth! Paxton can now pull himself up to knee level, sit by himself, and he is still doing the army crawl (not because he can't crawl up on his knees, but because it is much faster for him to be down on his belly-silly kid). Caiden is getting very excited for pre-school to start tomorrow! We got to go buy two new outfits for school this past week-he now wears a size 5/6. He looks stinkin huge to me!

This is a picture of Jayson pulling Caiden and Paxton around on a blanket. Fun for everyone!!

Paxton crawling through the table-he does this several times a day usually. Most of the time he can manage to get out without hurting himself!

One day, our neighbor Brock came over with all his nerf guns. He and Caiden had a great time playing with them and when Jayson got home he wanted in on the action too! I was in my bathroom and I was called out very innocently by Jayson and this is what I saw waiting to attack me! They pelted me with bullets before I could jump back into the safety of my bathroom-they all thought that was pretty funny! As you can see from the picture above, even Paxton wanted to play!

My co-worker Kristi has a pool at her apartment and she invited us over for a swim one day. We really liked cooling off and Paxton loved to kick his little feet in the cool water too! She was so nice to take this picture for us. We are going to miss having her and her husband here-he is in the military and they are being transfered to Illinois.

9 years and still going!!

2010-08-03T19:11:00.000-07:00

Yesterday we celebrated our ninth anniversary! Hard to believe that much time has gone by! We had such a fun day celebrating too! We went boating at Willard Bay with my sister and her husband. Jayson and I had never tried water skiing until yesterday-let's just say that Jayson mastered it faster than I did. He was able to get up and go on his first try! I tried three times with no luck then three times more, but only getting up for maybe five seconds each time. My sister was great at it and made it look really easy, but she's been doing it for years. My brother-in-law was so good at it that he had to show off and hold on with one hand while drinking a can of coke with the other! I'm not even making that up! We have video footage of it!
We also did back flips off the back of the boat, which again Jayson and I had both never done. I have to say I mastered that better than Jayson. But I look worse than he does now because my first two times I hit my legs on the water instead of my feet and now I am bruised on both lower legs-I bruise really easily. Just to brag about myself one more time, I also dive better than Jayson, who had never tried that until yesterday! You guessed it-he belly flopped!

Caiden was really scared to get in the water at first, but he was begging us to let him stay in by the end of the day! He loved riding in the boat and swimming with Jayson and I. Once he knew that the life jacket would really not let him drown he was good!

This is Caiden driving the boat with my brother-in-law Jacob and my sister Cailin! He thought he was so so cool!

We ended the night with dinner at Red Robyn and a movie at home after putting the boys to bed. It was a great way to celebrate if you ask me!

Lovin the splash pad!!

2010-08-03T19:00:00.000-07:00

So I did a post earlier about the splash pad, but this time we went with different people so I had to post these pictures too! We love the splash pad so much so this time we invited Aunt Kimmie and Grandma ViAnn to come with us! We ate a picnic lunch and splashed in the water with cousins-what a great summer day!! Have I ever mentioned that I have the best baby in the world! He is always so happy and smiling, which is good cause we just pack him around everywhere we go! He is learning the army crawl pretty good now and he has discovered he can make loud noises so he has started to squeel really loud sometimes now. We love this cute little chunky boy!

Caiden and cousin Josh,

Caiden and cousin Alana.

Utah holiday!!

2010-08-03T18:48:00.000-07:00

In Utah we celebrate pioneer day on July 24. It fell on a Saturday, but I had the night off so we went to dinner with some of Jayson's friends and their kids! We ate at Texas Roadhouse and then came to our house to do fireworks!! We had a great time and the kids got along great! Paxton went to bed early so we really got to enjoy the evening!
This is a picture of the cute kids. Kenzie age 7, Caiden age 4, and Tanner age 6. I can't believe how tall my son is-maybe these kids are just short, but either way it is pretty funny.

I love this picture of them in the smoke bomb! They liked to run through the smoke-really good for their lungs I'm sure.

Everyone loves sparklers!

Camping, four wheeling, and beaching!

2010-08-02T19:18:00.000-07:00

Caiden love to go to the beach- or as he likes to call it "beaching". We went camping with Jayson's parents a few weeks ago to a nice quiet place up near Bear Lake. We enjoyed three days of four wheeling, camping and beaching. We also took my niece Brooke-she is great at keeping Caiden entertained so we don't have to be constantly finding something to keep him busy. Can't wait to go again next week!

fourth of July fun!

2010-08-02T18:54:00.001-07:00

For the fourth of July we celebrated with both sets of parents and watched fireworks here in West Point after having a wonderful free sloppy joe dinner! We have done this for the past three years and we enjoy it pretty well! There is lots of fun things to do like bounce houses and rock climbing walls for the kids and it is all free! Good job West Point city!

What a good lookin family!

June

2010-06-29T20:11:00.000-07:00

These first two photos will catch up the end of May for everyone! Paxton has started eating solids and he loves it! He loves to eat anything that is put in front of him, rice cereal, peas, sweet potatoes, popsicles, etc. He still is nursing very well too- a little to well since he still wants to wake up for it in the middle of the night. He sure is a little chunker, but I love it!

So I can't believe June is almost over! We have done some pretty fun things and I really need to find time to get on my computer more-oh well. We started June with Jayson leaving on a trip to Tennessee to see his best friend J.R. get married. He married a girl I set him up with while we lived in Tennessee-her name is Jennifer. So anyways, he felt like he wanted to do more than just go to the wedding then head home so he left me for 9 days!! I had to work for four of those days so it made it interesting!! Thank you to all the family and friends that helped out with the babysitting!! The wedding was beautiful and wonderful and I only wish I could have been there too! The boys and I did have some fun while daddy was gone. The pics below are of a really fun park in Kaysville that is shaped all like a castle. I took my sister and her little girl Brooke and the two kids really liked it!

When Jayson finally got home (thank goodness he didn't die while rafting down the river or messing around in the rental car--I don't think I could handle being a single mom!) we spent some time together that Sunday night then we worked opposite shifts the next two days followed by a really fun day together at Lagoon! My work knows how to put on a good party! We thought Caiden would really like it this year, but he only went on one ride and screamed his head off before even giving any of the others a chance. We ended up calling my sister and having her come pick up Caiden because it was not fun at all.

Today we went to the splash pad in Riverdale and again took my sister and cousin Brooke with us. We stopped and let the kids eat free lunch at the elementary school first and then headed out to the park in the 90 degree heat. They had a great time running around getting drenched then warming up on their towels. The best part is that the splash pad is free too! We will definitely be hitting that up at least once a week!

Look how cute they are-holding hands- I love it!

Never a moments rest!

2010-05-20T16:37:00.000-07:00

So it seems like I always look to some point in the future and say to myself, "When such-and-such happens, then I'll have more time." Does anyone else ever do this? I thought when I graduated that I would be so bored I wouldn't know what to do with my self-what a laugh! I can't believe a month has gone by since I last posted something!

I have been working nights and weekends and it seems like I never see my husband anymore. We have had a few trips planned(such as one this weekend) and the weather has just not cooperated. We ended up selling the big fancy trailer from the previous post because my car pretty much died-sigh. We traded it in on a new Toyota Corolla that we are leasing and hopefully when the lease is up we'll have a little more money to spend on a car than we do now.

My job is going well, but sometimes I wonder why I ever wanted to be a nurse. Some nights I literally run my butt off all night! But all-in-all we are happy that I have it and for the way it works for our family.

I snapped some cute pictures over the last month so I thought I would update everyone a little and show off my cute boys!! Enjoy!!

I won this tent at my last work staff meeting and Caiden claimed it as his own. We set it up in the basement and he loves to pretend we are camping. Funny thing he said when he saw it was, "We don't need a trailer anymore, we can just use this tent!" We laughed at the time, but he might be right about that after all!Well it's no bubble mower, but Caiden has a great imagination!

1st camping trip of the season!!

2010-04-19T11:56:00.000-07:00

Jayson was so excited for the warm weather (and that means 65 for all those not here in Utah) that we packed up the trailer on Friday and headed out to do a little camping! We couldn't go too far from home as there is still snow in the mountains, but also I had to work on Saturday morning so I had to wake up at 5 and drive to get to work on time. We went to Crystal Hot Springs which is kind of lame, but fun because they have hot tubs to sit in. The weather was good, only a little cool at night but that's why we have a heated trailer!

We look forward to camping season every year, especially Jayson since he bought us a nice, new, fancy, trailer in January. He's been dying for a chance to use it! In two weeks we are going to Moab and then after that we'll park it up on our property that we rent. We love summer-it's about time it started warming up!

I colored my hair for my 30th birthday-what do ya'll think?!!

Cutest baby I've ever seen!

Paxton's blessing

2010-04-13T09:03:00.000-07:00

We had Paxton's blessing this past Sunday and everything went great! Jayson was nervous, but he always is with that sort of thing. He gave a nice blessing in spite of his nerves. We decided to only invite family to this one because I just didn't want all the people in my house and the headache of figuring out food for an army and all the hassle that comes with a crowd. Plus i had to work at two so I just didn't want all the work of a big party-that's not what it's about anyways. We had a nice brunch at our house afterwards and the day ended up being very nice. Jayson got to take the boys to the park after I left for work(the temp is finally in the 60s now!).

I definitely have to thank God for the wonderful, healthy, and happy boys that I have. I am lucky to be a mom.

April Fools!

2010-04-02T09:14:00.000-07:00

Only in Utah can it be 69 degrees one day and 34 the next! We woke up to snow yesterday and it was freezing! Caiden loved it of course, but poor Jayson has to postpone a camping trip and that doesn't make him very happy. So instead of enjoying nice spring weather like the rest of the country, we got to spend the day inside! Caiden's cousin Brooke came over for a while so that helped move the day along nicely.

I decided to be productive and clean my oven! For all you neat-freaks, please skip this next paragraph as it will disgust you and you will probably throw up! I have not cleaned my oven as long as I have lived in this house (yes people, that is 3 and 1/2 years). I had a self cleaning oven in my house before and I realize now what a nice thing that was.
I read the directions on my oven cleaner carefully, noting that you should not inhale the spray, I prepped my oven and got my gloves on. OK-let's do this! I started to spray as indicated on the bottle and before I was done, I was gasping for air! Very funny-don't inhale the spray-kind of hard not to!
I immediately evacuated the kids from the upstairs, opened the window, the door, and turned on the ceiling fan! I was still coughing and choking! I ran outside and took some deep breaths (remember-it's only 30 degrees out!). How would I finish this task without dying?!
I courageously went back inside with my gloves on and dish rag in hand. Luckily the smell had dissipated some and I got to work. Scrubbing three years of gunk away is not an easy task. My back hurts, my legs hurt, and I think I pulled a muscle in my shoulder! What a freakin joke! No wonder I left this task for three years! I finally got the job done but I have made a decision-the next time I need to clean my oven, I may decide just to buy a new one instead!! Please leave a comment if you too hate to clean your oven!

This is a cute picture I took this morning. Caiden was holding Paxton for me while I went to the bathroom. He is such a good big brother and little helper. I should have taken a picture of what Paxton looked like once I got back-I guess Caiden's arm got tired so he just laid Paxton down on the couch sort of half-on, half-off of his lap. Pretty funny.

Random Pics

2010-03-30T13:45:00.000-07:00

Here are just some random pictures of the kids from the last couple of weeks. One morning Caiden climbed in bed with me and actually slept longer than I did! I had to take a picture of how sweet he looks when he's asleep.

I have been swapping child care with my friend so that we both can work and not pay a sitter. Luckily it works out most of the time that we work on opposite days. This is Kenya, who is practically Caiden's sister, she and Caiden have a lot of fun together most of the time. I am so blessed to live in a great neighborhood where we can help each other out with our kids!

Paxton is now almost three months old! At his two month check up he weighed 12 pounds and was 22 and 1/2 inches long! While I have been typing this post, he rolled to the side for the first time! Caiden discovered him and thought that was a pretty cool trick! He loves to smile and is usually a very happy and good baby! Very laid back! He sleeps now for six hours at night so I only have to wake up and feed him at around 2:30 then again about 6. I will be so excited when he sleeps all night! We love him and are so glad he is part of our family.
Work has been keeping me busy the last little while, but at least the extra income has been good. We were actually not in the negative this last paycheck! My job is working out great and has many nice little perks-like ice cream sundae Sundays, an Easter egg hunt coming up on Easter, Jazz ticket giveaways at staff meetings, weekly free lunches and other fun things! Everyone there is really good to work with and I am gaining more confidence with every shift. It does get pretty stressful sometimes, but I only have to work two or three times a week so I really can't complain!

Baby Sister???!!

2010-02-28T14:58:00.001-08:00

So even when I was pregnant with Paxton and we new he was a boy, Caiden would ask about his baby sister. I would remind him that this one was a boy and that maybe one day he will get a sister. A few weeks ago while we were eating lunch he asked me if I had his baby sister in my belly, to his dismay I had to tell him no.
At church today Caiden drew this picture and was pointing to the figures and saying this is you, and this is Paxton and, to the one his finger is pointing at, this is baby sister. Then he pointed to another one and said, "This is Jesus and our baby sister is in heaven with him waiting to come."
I hope the boy knows what he is talking about cause a little girl in the family would be nice, but she'll have to keep waiting at least for a little while longer!

Roller-Coaster February

2010-02-28T14:21:00.000-08:00

So February was kind of a roller-coaster month for us. I think I still have some of those crazy post partum hormones too so it was even more dramatic for me. As I mentioned in the last post, I got a job working with a Hospice agency and it seemed to have some real potential so we were very excited at first. What I soon came to realize was that even though I only see a few patients a week, I was called and asked to do stuff throughout the week and it was just a big interruption to my day. I was also promised some things that just were not panning out. So with a heavy heart and after several talks with Jayson, I called my friend and told her it was not working out for me and that I needed to quit. She took the news very well and after I visit my patients tomorrow, I am free from the stress of that job.
Well, during all this, I had been interviewing for other jobs because the Hospice job would not have brought in as much money as we needed to pay our bills every month. I got a call from a nursing home saying they wanted to hire me and I accepted. (I was not excited about it, but at least it was a job) Later that same day, I got a phone call from a rehab facility telling me they wanted me to work there! Two job offers in one day wasn't bad, but now we were faced at choosing what one would be best for our family.
To make this long story shorter for those of you falling asleep, I accepted a job at Pine View transitional rehab and I started last Thursday. The job is a PRN job which means "as needed" for those of you who don't speak nurse. I can sign up for days that they need filled, but I don't have a set schedule and can pick and choose when I want to work.
I had an awesome first week ( I have worked three shifts so far) and I am starting to get the hang of things. The patient load is somewhat overwhelming at times because I'm used to having only 4-5 patients and here I have 13-15 patients at a time! It is all going very well and I feel so good and at peace about my decision, which is not how I felt doing Hospice.
The best thing about it is that when I sign anything I get to put a neat little "RN" after my name-pretty cool if you ask me! It still doesn't seem real!

My cute boys...

2010-02-10T09:50:00.000-08:00

Paxton is now one month old! He has recently started smiling at his mommy and big brother (sometimes at daddy too). Caiden just adores Paxton and wants to love on him whenever he is awake! I have to say that I have the most handsome boys I know!

Busy January!

2010-02-06T09:27:00.000-08:00

We have been so blessed this month- I passed my state nursing boards on Tuesday, January 26 and got hired on with a Hospice agency and started working three days later! I have a friend in my ward that works there and offered me a position and started me as soon as she could! I think it will work out well for our little family because I can pretty much make up my own schedule and I won't have to work that many hours like I would if I worked at a hospital. We are very excited to finally reap the rewards of all the hard work I've done over the past three years!
I can't believe that Paxton will be four weeks old on Monday! For the first two weeks after the baby came home, my mom and mother-in-law came to help out. Mostly they played with Caiden and kept him entertained so that I could attend to the baby, but it was a HUGE help to have them here! I also was studying for my state nursing boards during this time too so I really appreciated that they were close enough to help out.
My mom had a craft for Caiden to make every day that she came. This picture is one of Caiden wearing his fancy tool belt that he built! They were playing a game of dominoes to keep him busy too.
This picture is of his cute pasta hat. They glued pasta noodles to the plate on top but Caiden kept trying to take them off and eat them. We told him they wouldn't be good because they weren't cooked, but he tried anyways.

Caiden and grandma ViAnn made sugar cookies and heart shaped pancakes! What a fun way to spend time with grandma!A big thank you to both moms for spending time with Caiden and helping make dinners and clean my house and so on... I love you both and I am glad you were here to help me!

The following pics were taken just a few days after we came home from the hospital. I love the little wrinkly skin that newborns have. I wanted to take some good pictures of it before the wrinkles disappear. I think Paxton is so sweet and he reminds us so much of his brother! I can't believe they had the same birth weight and height too--6lbs 14 oz and 20 inches long!

Baby Paxton!!

2010-01-19T14:17:00.000-08:00

Little Paxton Jay arrived quickly, but safely at 12:20am on Monday January 11th. My contractions started at about 5:15 on Sunday night and were ten minutes apart. I was told to go to the hospital when they were five minutes apart, but that never happened for me. When the pain was absolutely unbearable, and I was certain they would not turn me away at the hospital, we left home at 11:20pm. The contractions suddenly went from 10 minutes apart to 3 minutes and were the worst pain I could imagine. When we finally arrived at the hospital (longest 25 minutes of my life!) the nurse checked me and I was dilated to a ten and the baby was pretty much walking out of me! They raced me through the halls to the delivery room-Jayson and my mom running behind us--called my doctor who arrived lickety-split and I pushed Paxton out before I could even blink! No time for an epidural, just some cuss words and cries of pain to get me through! Man what a rush! We think he is pretty cute, but you can decide for yourself what you think! Caiden is very proud of his new little buddy!
Our arrival home from the hospital!

Second cutest baby room ever!

2009-12-30T09:02:00.000-08:00

So I tend to go a little overboard with my baby rooms that I create, but I can't help it. I loved my baby room in Tennessee and I wanted one just as cute here. I had a lot of firefighter stuff from when Caiden was born and his bed spread now is firefighter themed so I had to figure out a way to incorporate all the items I already had.
I got the ladder idea off the internet and had my dad help me make it- well pretty much he just made it and I painted it. I had pics of Caiden and Jayson at the fire dept in TN from one of our visits back there so I decided to frame those and hang them from the ladder-they look great!
When Paxton comes, I will get more frames and hang them on the adjacent wall to help complete the look.
I still need a few more accents and pictures around the room, but I think it looks pretty cute just how it is. Can't wait until we have money to do the rest of our house! I have a great idea for our master bedroom!
This view is from the corner of the room by the closet. You can't really tell from the pictures, but the room is painted a light blue.

This view is from the doorway looking in.

Caiden's birthday party!!

2009-12-29T09:45:00.000-08:00

We decided to do a friend birthday party for Caiden this year so we invited all his little friends and some cousins to come with us to Arctic Circle!! Caiden loved it as we knew he would. My camera died right before he got to open presents so these are the only pictures I got.

Caiden loves batman!Caiden, Joshua, and Jake.Hyrum, Kenya, Caiden, and Brooke.

Now, when I say that my camera died, I mean that it is completely broken! I was so mad! It's not like we didn't have anything important coming up like christmas and the soon the birth of our baby-whatever. I called my dad and asked if we could borrow their old 35 mm camera to which he said yes. So we did have a camera for christmas and since Jayson is such a little impulse buyer, he went and bought a new digital camera the day after christmas.

We had some money that his dad had given us for christmas and on christmas eve, a lady came and bought some maternity pants that didn't fit me that I had been trying to sell for months. Funny how that added up to enough money for us to buy a new camera!!

Graduation!!

2009-12-16T14:50:00.001-08:00

December 9, 2009 will not be a date that we soon forget! It seems like so long ago that I started back to school in hopes of becoming a nurse, I can't believe that I did it and am finally done! We celebrated by going to dinner at Applebees and then onto my pinning ceremony. Afterwards we took a small group of family with us to Marie Calenders for pie!
I am so glad to be out of school again and I look forward to spending more time with Caiden and our new little one when he gets here. The job market is getting a bit tougher than you would think for nurses, but I'm sure I will find something that suits our needs once Paxton is born. These are my best nursing school buddies who I will miss the most from my class.
L to R: Larissa, Mandy, Me, Jamie, Rose

Happy Thanksgiving!

2009-11-29T19:06:00.000-08:00

We had a great thanksgiving this year with Jayson's dad and his family. We had never been with him for thanksgiving since we've been married and thought it was about time that we do so. We got re-acquainted with aunts and uncles, cousins, and grandmas and grandpas that we rarely see. Also, the food was fantastic-I ate so much for lunch that I didn't even need dinner at the end of the day! I didn't take my camera so there are no pictures but we did have a great time!

Just a little pregnancy update-

This is me at 32 weeks (I will be 34 tomorrow and should be taking another picture soon). My back is freakin killing me but other than that, I can't complain. I have gained a total of 17 pounds, but I'm sure it will be more when I go to my appointment this week. (Thanks to all the delicious pie I ate over the last several days!)

Caiden loves baby Paxton (which is FINALLY the name Jayson and I decided on). He is constantly pulling up my shirt to love on the baby like in the picture below. He always says, "I will be the best big brother huh mom". I have to agree with him on that one!

Update....

2009-11-09T09:32:00.000-08:00

This is back from when I was 26 weeks. I am now at 31 weeks and a bit bigger than this, but I keep forgetting to take a picture! I just finished my precepting at the hospital which means I will never work for free in a hospital again! I have one month left of class work and I will be done! We started working on the boy's bedroom and I will post pictures as soon as we get to painting! If anyone knows a great boy name we are open to suggestions-we can't agree on one we both like.Caiden actually wanted to dress up for Halloween this year so we were pretty excited about that. We had his cousins Josh and Alauna over for trick-or-treating and they had a great time!

The boys loved to pretend fight with each other. This is an action shot of their super hero powers!

24 weeks and counting!!

2009-09-22T15:13:00.001-07:00

This week we are 24 weeks pregnant! The picture below was taken two weeks ago, at which time I had a total weight gain of 8 pounds. I am feeling pretty good, but my back has been hurting more than I would expect it to at this point. I guess that is the trade off for not having morning sickness in my first trimester.

School has started again, but is much more relaxed than the three previous semesters. I only have school on Thursdays and my clinicals have been few and far between. Precepting will start in October so I assume I will be more busy then, but I am just enjoying my schedule for now.

Trip to TN

2009-09-22T14:10:00.000-07:00

For my anniversary present, Jayson gave me a ticket to Tennessee to visit my friend Becky! She is three weeks ahead of me in her pregnancy so you can imagine how we spent much of our time! That's right--we ate really good food almost every day! This first picture is of some of my friends from the Murfreesboro ward at Miller's Grocery; very good southern cooking!We did some shopping, went to a comedy club and mostly just talked about nursing school, being a nurse, or anything else we could think of. This is a shot of us at a huge outside mall in Huntsville, Alabama. We stayed with Becky's parents for the day and again had some great home cooking! Thanks Momma Nelson!! This was from the last day of my trip. We wanted a comparison of our bellies. As it turns out, she's having another girl and ours is another boy. It's great to be pregnant with your best friend!! I just wish we still lived around the corner from each other :(

Who's pregnant?

2009-08-02T10:55:00.000-07:00

Today is our anniversary so I want to first say Happy Anniversary to my sweet husband! Let me just brag a minute about the awesome gift he gave me.... he got me a plane ticket to Tennessee so I could have a week to myself with my best girl Becky!!! I was so excited and surprised by the gift! he usually ruins surprises cause he just can't hold it in, but he was good this time. He has known about this for three months and didn't say a word. He said I deserve a trip and some time to myself after all the hard work and all the fun trips he gets to go on without me-I can't agree more! Not to seem ungrateful or anything, but I totally deserve some time to myself!!
So a couple of weeks ago Caiden asked why the baby isn't coming out yet. So I told him I had to get really big and the baby had to grow big inside me before it can come out. I used a blanket to demonstrate on myself just what my big belly would look like when the baby can come out. He then said, "I want a baby in my belly." Just a cute picture of pregnant Caiden-silly kid.

I will be 17 weeks tomorrow, but I sure do hate that the second baby shows much sooner than the first one did. Oh well. I have only gained about 3 pounds so far so I think that is pretty good. I felt the baby kick for the first time on Tuesday. By the way, Caiden was the photographer for this picture since Jayson is at work. Not bad for a 3 year old!

Hiking

2009-08-02T10:48:00.000-07:00

We went on a hike yesterday to Waterfall Canyon. I remember it being a fairly easy hike, but I guess the last time I hiked it I was 16 and not pregnant. We made it all the way to the top and Caiden loved climbing up all the rocks. We got to go to the snow shack for a treat afterwards!! Sure do love those snow cones!

Just a little catching up!

2009-07-24T07:56:00.000-07:00

April 22, 2009

I graduated with my LPN on April 22. My parents and my in-laws were there as well as my dear friends Brooke and AdriAnne. It was a very proud night for me as I'm sure my RN graduation will be too. I can't believe I am actually doing this!!

April 28-May 3, 2009

I had a week off between spring and summer semesters so we decided to go to Zion National Park and camp in our trailer. We had my sister Cailin and her husband Jacob with us as well as a co-worker of Jayson's and his wife and little boy. We hiked and hiked and rested and hiked some more! We had a great time. The three guys hiked a really cool and treturous path called Angel's Landing. There were huge drop offs and it was really high, but they loved it! We'll definately be visiting Zion again!!

June

Jayson and Caiden have passed the time very well. While I would stay home studying on the weekends, they were gone a lot either camping or four wheeling or both! Caiden loves the four wheeler and has gone on some long rides with his daddy and grandpas. These pictures were taken the same day. Snow on the mountain and then wading in the river- that's Utah for ya!

July 3-4, 2009

We have an awesome city that we live in who does some great fourth of July things. On the third, we hung out at the park and ate a free sloppy-joe dinner. My parents and in-laws were there for all the fun too! Then Caiden wore himself out by going on the bounce house obstical course about a hundred times, getting his face painted, climbing the rock wall and watching fireworks. He slept great that night!

Caiden wanted his face painted like batman-guess this was the closest they could get! Can't expect anything more for free I guess. The girl in this picture is Jayson's co-workers daughter Sara.

On the fourth, we went to the West Point parade and then to the park for some more fun. That night, we celebrated with a steak dinner at with Jayson's dad and his neighbors who are good friends of our family. This is Caiden with "Aunt Sue". She bought fireworks that we set off at her house and then we watched the Willard fireworks from her balcony.

July 9-11, 2009

We took a quick trip to Montana and stayed in a cabin with our friends Anna and Clint and thier boys. We went to the lake one day and the boys really loved the water as you can see. It was pretty cold, but that didn't seem to bother them. The next day we decided to tour Yellowstone and can I just say, that is not enough time to see hardly anything! Especially with two little ones in the car with you. We made frequent stops so they didn't get bored, but it made for a very long day! We saw some elk, bison, a cyote and a pretty waterfall!! We'll have to go back some time and camp in the park so we can have more time there.

That pretty much brings us to the current day. I have today off from school so I decided to update this silly blog for anyone who still might be interested on what is going on in my life besides school. I only have two days left of this summer semester and then I will be free for a whole, beautiful month!! Our anniversary is next week and I think Jayson is planning something fun for us to do. We have another big camping trip planned on the 12th and on the 18th----we find out the sex of our baby!!

That's right--for anyone who doesn't know we are expecting our second baby due January 12th, 2010!! I have been very blessed to not be sick with this pregnancy and everything seems to be going well. Caiden is very exited and keeps asking when it will snow because he knows that is when the baby will be coming out! He will be a great big brother!

That is all for now. Hopefully it won't be so long before my next post, but I can't make any guarantees.

Easter Fun!

2009-04-16T10:27:00.000-07:00

For Easter this year, we had everyone over at our house for an Easter egg hunt and dinner. All of my family came and Jayson's mom and dad and grandma and grandpa came too. We had a delicious ham dinner and the kids really liked finding the Easter eggs. I love this picture of my sister Aubrey-this kids decided she would be fun to ride so they all took turns riding her feet and giggling like it was the funnest ride they'd ever been on.

Coloring these eggs was not the brightest idea I've ever had, but I guess it was fun!

2009-03-22T10:12:00.000-07:00

It was a beautiful spring day here in Utah so we decided it was time to get out of the house and do something fun! We had been promising to take Caiden on the Front runner for finally being potty trained so we took the opportunity to do it! We rode it all the way from Clearfield to Salt Lake City and then we took Trax up to Temple Square. From there, we walked to the Olive Garden for some dinner then drove the train home again!! Caiden loved it and we love him for finally learning how to use the potty!

Rascal Flats!!

2009-02-28T09:58:00.000-08:00

So, my best girl friend Becky lives in Tennnessee and has a friend who works as a crewmember for Rascal Flats. She came out to Utah for her brothers wedding and got 10 FREE tickets to the Rascal Flats concert!! Jayson and I were really excited! We had the most awesome seats as you can tell by the picture here.

Our friends, Christianne and Jeremy, who also lived in TN when we did and who also now live here got to come too!! It had been about two years since we last saw them so that was fun too.

This is a great shot of Becky and me! It was about 12:30am when we got home from the concert and I had clinicals the next day at 6:30, but it was well worth the sleep deprivation! It was the most fun I've had in a long time.

Our Christmas fun!

2009-01-31T14:51:00.000-08:00

Ok, so I realize it has been two months since my last post, but I am freakin busy! I have just finished up a paper that took me about three hours to complete today. That is down form last weeks which took me five and half hours! I am half-way through to getting my LPN though and a quarter of the way through to my RN. Well anyway, enough about boring school.

We had a fun birthday party for Caiden and a really good christmas too! Caiden got a bike from Santa and was pretty excited about that. He got a tractor, and play dough, and a fire engine with building blocks in it to name a few. His favorite is the play dough, which is my favorite too! He'll play with that stuff for hours!

We rang in the new year at a friends house this year. Jayson was in Arizona so it was just Caiden and I that went. Caiden made it until about ten and fell asleep like a good little boy even though there were lots of friends to play with.

My new favorite thing that Caiden says is, "You're my best friend." It melts my heart.
Here are some pics!!

I love this picture, he likes to wear a hat, but no pants-go figure?

Caiden's first snowman!

Caiden turns 3!! And yes, I made the cake!

Caiden loving Santa aka grandpa....

Caiden hating Santa!

Sunny Arizona!

2008-12-06T21:30:00.000-08:00

I actually got a week off from school for Thanksgiving break so we decided to go to Arizona and visit Jayson's brother Mike. We drove for an exciting 13 hours to get there and about 14 to get back, but we had fun anyways. We left on Wed and came back on Sat. While we were there we had an interesting Thanksgiving dinner made by Mike and his roommates, we went to the Phoenix zoo, and visited one of Jayson's friends for dinner. On the way back home, we decided to stop and see the Grand Canyon cause who knows if we'll ever have that chance again. It was really beautiful for the ten minutes that we spent there. Maybe we can take a real trip there and go backpacking or something, oh well, it was fun to see it anyways.

Caiden loves his uncle Mike!
This is what a 14 hour road trip does to a kid! He was a great traveler with us!

Halloween

2008-11-01T21:24:00.000-07:00

Ok all you bloggers who are dying for an update, here is a new pictures for you. Caiden liked Halloween this year, but he still did not like dressing up for it. This farmer/scarecrow/hillbilly costume was the best thing I could come up with. I told him he had to leave the hat on or he wouldn't get any candy! He sure did like all the free candy!

First Snow!

2008-10-18T14:12:00.000-07:00

So we had our first snow storm of the season last Sunday! Caiden was very excited and wanted to play in it as soon as he saw it. Jayson was not a happy camper. I can appreciate his view that October is too soon for snow, but today it is sunny and 70 again, go figure. Crazy Utah weather!

I am officially halfway through the semester and let me say, it's not getting easier! I sometimes feel very overwhelmed and unintelligent, but I have to remind myself that I'll get there. We had mid-term evaluations last week and I am getting straight B's and for me, that is great! I just need to maintain them for the next 8 weeks. Crazy! I can't beleive sometimes that this is my reality. I am blessed, but very overwhelmed with what I've gotten myself into. I try to keep my chin up and I am blessed to have a lot of support.

Crazy busy!

2008-10-02T17:23:00.000-07:00

I have been crazy busy since starting back to school on Aug 25. I am enjoying a quiet night alone thanks to my loving husband who took Caiden and went camping so I could get some major studying done. I know I should be studying instead of blogging, but I seriously don't think I can cram anything else into my brain today. I have not even looked at blogs for a whole month! I am so glad I don't have a job to add to my stress! (Thank you Jayson for letting me stay home!)
So far I am staying at the mandatory "B" average that we have to have in order to move on the our RN year, so that is something to be proud of. I am in no way an "A" student, but that's ok. Everytime I take a test and it's above 80% I give a little sigh of relief. Caiden misses me being home with him, but he does like his friends to play with. Sometimes he asks if I can come too, but I always have to tell him no. :(
We have a new roommate living with us in our basement bedroom. She loves Caiden and always spoils him with candy. She is a little girl from Vietnam who sends money home to her family. She is such a blessing for us right now because we so badly need the money for the babysitters.
I just keep having to remind myself that it will all be worth it! Only 15 months to go!!

Happy Anniversary!

2008-08-03T06:47:00.000-07:00

Wow, I can't believe we've been married for seven years already! Time flies when you're having fun!! Jayson and I usually like to do something really fun for our anniversary, but because we are trying to save money for when I start school, we decided to just go on a real date- which we don't do too often. We went to the cheap theater in Kaysville and watched Prince Caspian and then we went to Jayson's favorite restaurant Famous Dave's. We had a good time together and we still love each other very much.

Camping

2008-07-27T06:43:00.000-07:00

This summer we have done a lot of camping. On our most recent trip, we went to Bear Lake for a swim. Caiden loved it last year when we took him and he loved it again this year. He loves to play in the sand and get covered from head to toe then run in the water and get all cleaned off.

Discovery Center

2008-07-22T06:36:00.000-07:00

We went to the Discovery Center in SLC today. There were so many things for kids to do! We got to go with Grandma Wadsworth, Aunt Kimmy and Joshua. We stayed for about two hours and then I had to drag Caiden out kicking and screaming while I looked like some abusive mother. After eating a sack lunch, we let the kids play in the fountains at the Gateway. What a fun day! The pictures below are of the real Lifeflight Helecopter they have on the roof of the museum! The kids liked it except for when they pushed the button that made it sound like they were taking off! Scared them half to death!

Aerospace Museum

2008-07-19T06:29:00.000-07:00

We went to the Aerospace museum this week and got to see yet another of Caiden's favorite things, airplanes! There were so many airplanes, I could not belive it! Funny to admit, but I had never been the the museum and it is in my hometown of Roy. Oh well, I know Caiden enjoyed it more than I did anyway.

With his two friends Kenya and Avonlee.

Fireworks!

2008-07-05T06:23:00.000-07:00

We had Grandpa and Grandma Wadsworth over for some fourth of July fun. We went to the West Point dinner and ate some yummy chicken. Caiden played in the bounce house with Grandma while we waited our turn in line ( long line for free dinner!)

Caiden loved the fireworks! We kept him awake this year so he could watch them for the first time and he absolutely loved them. In fact, everytime he meets a new person he has to tell them, " I watch fireworks, they go BAM up in the sky!" It was like the highlight of the summer for him!

Rasmussen Reunion

2008-06-30T06:16:00.000-07:00

We had a fun family reunion this weekend up in Idaho with my side of the family. Caiden was in heaven because Grandpa let him ride on the tractor, which was my Grandpa's old tractor that I rode on as a kid! We saw lots of fun cousins and relatives and played some fun games! The theme was Christmas in June so we played the game where you decorate one person to look like Rudolph and I got to be the lucky one for our team! Lots of fun!

Fathers Day

2008-06-15T06:06:00.000-07:00

We had a great Father's Day this year with Jayson's Dad, brother Mike, and sisters Kim and Kaylynn. Everyone came to our house for a barbecue and we actually went to a park because we didn't have any outside tables. The kids played on the play ground and we ate and visited and met Mike's new girlfriend, Melissa.

Kaylynn, Kim, Melissa, and Caiden enjoying smoothies that Mike made us! Yummy!!

Dinosaur Park

2008-06-14T06:54:00.000-07:00

We went to the Ogden Dinosaur Park with our fun neighborhood playgroup this week. caiden wasn't scared, which really made it a fun day. His favorite thing was to play at the park there, so basically I paid five dollars for him to play at the park-go figure.

LAGOON!!

2008-06-09T14:37:00.000-07:00

Jayson is working a fun summer job at Lagoon as an EMT. We got to go on family day for only 10 bucks per person. We took Caiden and Grandma and Grandpa Wadsworth with us, but unfortunately Caiden didn't have as much fun as we hoped he would. The kids have to ride solo for most of the kids rides which was going really well until the ride started moving. He cried the whole time and was screaming, "Mommy, help me!" Talk about making me feel like a bad mom. After that (which was only the second ride) he didn't want to go on any rides. Now when we talk about Lagoon he says, "Scary goon". Maybe next year...

This is the first ride we went on and it was ok for Caiden because we were there to make it safe.

This is the one he started crying on. We thought he would be ok cause he picked a seat by the little boy, but once it started moving, he got freaked out! Poor little guy.

We convinced him that the cars were safe so he did try that one by himself! Yay!

Memorial Day

2008-05-29T17:19:00.000-07:00

We had a good camping trip this past weekend up Blacksmith Fork. We are renting some property up there for the summer so we don't have to spend a lot on gas to go camping when we want to. The weather was a little cool, but Caiden played outside all day and didn't want to come in the trailer to go to sleep. We did have some trouble with ticks, but we found them before they got under the skin so no worries-we hope.
I found out last week that I start school on August 25th. We are going to get all the fun in we can this summer so I can hit the books this fall. People keep asking if I'm excited, and I am for the most part. I am just nervous to be working in people's close, personal space. It's just such a big challenge to go to school with a toddler at home. I really wish I had decided my career path sooner. Oh well, it will all be over in December of 2009!!!

Tennessee Trip

2008-05-10T20:17:00.000-07:00

We got back this week from our trip to Tennessee/Myrtle Beach and we are glad to be home, but we miss Tennessee very much. I cried when I had to leave my Becky again. She is an awesome friend who I miss dearly.

Most of our time was spent visiting friends and eating lots of great food. Becky and I went to the Grand Ole Opry one night and watched Trace Adkins and some other country stars perform. I had lunch with my former co-workers at MTSU and Jayson caught up with some of his fire fighter buddies. We also took a side trip to Myrtle Beach for the weekend and had an awesome time! The kids loved the ocean and the beach and they definitely didn't want to leave (we really didn't either for that matter).

Caiden was a great little traveler and did well in the car to Myrtle Beach and on the airplane. He keeps asking everyday if we can fly in the sky on the airplane!

Here are some pictures of the trip!

"I'm all wet."

2008-04-27T19:55:00.000-07:00

We are here in Tennessee visiting our friends this week. Today we decided to go for a walk around the block, but the kids thought it would be more fun to play in this puddle. Apparently Caiden didn't like being wet and decided to shred his pants right there on the spot. Funny kids!

Funny kid!

2008-04-16T20:45:00.000-07:00

Yesterday, while I was in the shower, Caiden decided to help himself to a little snack! When I got out of the shower I could hear a little clinking sound-like dishes clinking together-and I wondered, "Now what could that be?" I threw a towel on and went to investigate only to find Caiden standing by the couch with a glass bowl of jello and a spoon having a little treat. There was little bits of jello on him, the floor, and the couch. What is most funny to me is that he went to the fridge and pulled out the jello and then went to the utensil drawer and got a spoon, all without breaking the glass bowl! Who needs Mom anymore? Not Caiden.

Nursing School!

2008-03-29T15:46:00.000-07:00

Yay! Yay! Selina got into Nursing school!! She will start in August and end in December 2009! Sounds far away, but the time will go by before you know it. So we get to enjoy the summer and then hit the books this fall! It will totally be worth it in the end!!

Our little Caiden

2008-03-11T11:04:00.000-07:00

My little Caiden is two and, yes, sometimes terrible! He is 100% boy and loves to get into everything! He loves to sing songs and play with friends. He doesn't think anyone is a stranger and will talk to any person whether big or small. His favorite TV shows are Super Why and Word World on PBS. He is a very smart little kid and we love him to death!