What happens when mom does canning?

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!

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

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

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!

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!

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!

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?

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!

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!

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.