Temple Square

We decided to head downtown to see the lights on Temple Square last Friday. We stopped by Jason's work to pick him up and check out his new remodled office (it looks amazing!) and then our plans were to head to the mall, grab a bite to eat, look at the lights, and head home.

Well, we got downtown and realized the mall is no longer there (can you tell we are not downtown people? We go there like twice a year). So, that kid of messed up our plans...we headed to Trolley Square thinking there would be somewhere to eat there...well there wans't anything our kids would want to eat or that didn't have a long wait, but we did find Santa! Jaxon sat on his lap, as did Jordan, as long as Jason was right next to him. Brynn on the other hand wanted absolutely nothing to do with him...wouldn't get within ten feet of him! But for the past two days all she has been talking about is Santa and how she wants to sit on his lap...crazy girl!

We finally decided to eat at Noodles & Co. It had been forever since we had eaten there and it was yummy! The we grabbed some hot chocolate at 7-11 and headed to Temple Square. We looked at the lights which were beautiful, walked around the visitors center and had fun. It was freezing though! The kids had lots of layers and lots of blankets!

We had a lot of fun and hope to continue it as a family tradition...well not the part about planning to eat somewhere that no longer exists :)

Decorating for Christmas!

We finally decorated for Christmas last week...we were out of town right after Thanksgiving and had busy nights, so we finally got it done!

My kids had a great time finding all the fun Christmas stuff and I had a great time finding places to put all the stuff! Jordan had a great time playing with the bell ornaments and Jaxon was really worried about the star getting on the top of the tree. Brynn...well she helped decorate the tree a bit.

I love it when the kids help decorate the tree...all ornaments clumped together, but at least they had fun! I was worried that the ornaments on the tree wouldn't last for more than two minutes with Jordan, but he's actually been really good about it!

I love Christmas!

Thanksgiving

This year we decided to head down to St. George for Thanksgiving. We left the Monday before Thanksgiving and didn't come back until Sunday...it was a nice little vacation. My sister and her family came down the morning of Thanksgiving and we had fun hanging out with them and the kids had a great time playing with their cousins!

I didn't take too many pictures...don't know why, just didn't! But I did take some pictures when we went fishing at a little pond by my parent's house. The kids had a great time feeding the ducks...well the ducks didn't actually eat anything we fed them...darn ducks...Brynn wasn't too happy about that!

Jaxon caught a fish and was so proud of himself! Brynn wanted nothing to do with the fish...would get within about two feet of it and scream that it was icky, but she didn't stop talking about the "big fish" all night long! However, Jordan had no problems playing with the fish...he had a great time holding it and playing with it and getting fish "slime" all over him!

We had a great time hanging out with family, Black Friday shopping (the first time getting up early and going...not sure I'll do it again!), reading Hunger Games (great book!), eating (so much for the diet, right?) and just hanging out!

Thanks Mom and Dad for the great week of fun!

Better Late Than Never...

Well, Jordan's 1st birthday was on November 20th and I am just getting around to posting something about it...what a great mom I am, right?

We had a small party with Jason's family on the 18th because we didn't think we were going to be home on his actual birthday, but it turns out we were...oh well!

He had a great time opening presents, well actually he was kind of grumpy that night...but he still had fun. Jaxon and Brynn had a great time playing with cousins too!

The best part of the night for Jordan was the cake. I had big plans to make a really yummy, fun cake, but I had surgery on my ear two days before the party, and had to have a bandage on my ear, so I sent Jason to the store to get some stuff for the cake. He came home and told me he had made an executive decision and bought a cake...works for me! It was a lot less work!

On his actual birthday, we had a little party here at home with just our family. Well...Jason was really sick that night, so he was on the couch while Jordan opened his presents. He was atcually much more interested in sitting and standing on his presnts than actually opening them. But with a little help from Jaxon and Brynn, he got them all opened eventually. I'm pretty sure Jaxon and Brynn played with his presents a ton more than Jordan did...I guess that's what happens with you have older sibilings :)

I still can't believe my baby boy is one! Where does the time go? He is such a happy, sweet, fun little boy to have around our house! Here are a few things about him:

He is already walking and has been since he was about 11 months old (my other kids didn't walk this early!)

He can say quite a few words: mom, day, uh-oh, bye, hi, ball, boo, more, night-night, love ya (there are more I just can't think of them right now!)

He loves to read books...all the time!

He loves to give kisses...big slobbery kisses!

He loves to play with Jaxon and Brynn (as long as she's not trying to sit on him!)

He loves to play with the pots and pans while I am cooking dinner...at first I hated it, but now as long as it keeps him entertained, I don't care!

I love this little boy so much and am so blessed to have him in our family!

Old Navy Jeans for Boys...

I need to know if anybody else hates little boy jeans from Old Navy? Seriously...I got Jordan and Jaxon four or five pair each because I got them pretty cheap and figured they should be pretty durable, right? Well, after Jordan wore his a grand total of two times, they had holes in the knee. Granted, he was still crawling a bit at the time and we have a lot of tile in our house, so I blamed it on that and banned him from wearing pants in the house until he was exclusively walking (he now only has one pair of Old Navy jeans with no holes). Mind you, I pulled out some jeans Jaxon had when he was a baby from Target and they have held up great with Jordan wearing them just as much as he wore the Old Navy ones.

Well, today I am getting Jaxon's shoes on for school and what do I see...a HOLE in his Old Navy jeans! I know boys are hard on pants, but really...it's not like Jaxon has been crawling around on the floor and dragging his knee on the floor...I just don't get it! I drives my crazy!

Now I am going to have to fork our some more money to get some decent pairs of jeans for these boys who I don't think are extremely hard on clothing, but apparently they are on Old Navy jeans, or maybe Old Navy jeans just suck!

I will never...

When I didn't have kids, or even when I only had one child, there were many things I swore I would NEVER do, some of these included:

I would never let my child walk around the house in only a diaper and a shirt...how hard is it to put pants on them, really?

I would never let my child wear those ugly Crocs.

I would never let my child wear flip flops/crocs when it was cold outside.

I would never let my child walk around with a snotty nose.

I would never wipe my child's snotty nose with his or her shirt.

I would never let my child go anywhere without his or her hair being done.

I would never ignore my child as he or she stood there and said "mom" twenty times at the store...really if you just say what, they'll be quite!


Let me just tell you something...

Tonight we headed to the store and Jaxon insisted on wearing his ugly crocs (yes he has crocs, they are so easy!), it was kind of chilly outside...I didn't want to hear his incesent whining so guess what he wore to the store?

Jordan is no longer allowed to wear his jeans in the house. Why you ask. I discovered while doing laundry yesterday that three of his pair of jeans have holes in the knees because we have so much tile in our house and he crawls around on it all day. So, until he is exclusively walking, he will be wearing only a diaper and a shirt around the house. (I will put pants on him if we go out!)

I get sick of doing Brynn's hair. I have to do it in the morning...I have to fix it when we get to the gym because she's rubbed her head on the back of her carseat...I have to do it after her nap if we are going anywhere...I have to do it after her bath so it's not crazy in the morning. So, if you see me in the store and her hair isn't done...it's because I was sick of doing it!

I can't count the times when I've wiped my kids snotty noses on their shirts...sometimes it's the only thing available, so what can you do, right?

I asked Jason the other day if I could change my name to something besides Mom and he said why, they'll just call you whatever you change it to. I love being a mom, but I don't necessarily like hearing "mom" 500 times a day! Sometimes you just don't want to answer!

I'm sure there are a ton of other things I swore I wouldn't do...I just can't think of them right now. So, if anybody reading this doesn't have kids and swears you won't do something...let's see what you think after you have three kids!

Trick-or-Treat

Okay...I don't know what is up with the format of my posts, but I don't really want to take the time to fix it, so that's how it's going to stay...sorry! I realize also that my pictures are in the wrong order...sorry again!

Halloween was so much fun this year! Jaxon and Brynn were totally into it and they were all so darn cute! We started off by taking the customary pictures on the front porch...the kids couldn't wait to get going! Then we ventured off throughout the neighborhood!

Once Brynn realized what happened when you knocked on the door and said trick-or-treat, she was all over it! She loved it and was a real trooper...aside from being carried every now and then, she walked most of the time!

Jordan thought this trick-or-treating stuff was pretty cool too! Jason took him out of the stroller and took him to about eight houses and he thought it was great...as soon as he saw the candy, he quickly decided that he needed to get his hands on some of it, so we put him back in the stroller with a sucker and he was content the rest of the night.

Jaxon had kind of a rough year this year. He started off great...ready to get lots of candy, but about half way through we wanted to sit in the stroller and I told him no and that he needed to keep walking if he wanted more candy...well come to find out, he had a big blister on his foot! When I figured that out I let him ride in the stroller...I love the picture of Jaxon and Jordan in the stroller with Brynn standing by them...so cute!

Then we went home dumped out all the candy to see what the damage was...they got plenty! I am happy to report that I had about four peices and that is all I have had...willpower, not such an easy thing for me!

We had a great Halloween this year. It seems like it just gets more and more fun as the kids get older...I'm not sure I like them getting so big so fast, but they are so much fun!

Halloween Party

We have a mommy and me playgroup that we go to on Wednesdays...well some Wednesdays...sometimes I have a hard time getting there...slacker mom that I am. Two of the moms put together this awesome party and my kids had a ton of fun. We were about 1/2 hour late (I had to go to the gym because my favorite step class is on Wed and I didn't want to miss it...selfish I know!) so we didn't get as much time to decorate our boxes with cute halloween decorations, but the kids still got to do it a little bit!

Then they had a fun story time and some fun games like ghost bowling, pin the face on the pumpkin, and musical pumpkin. My kids had a great time! Then the kids got to decorate cookies...Brynn was a total disaster by the time it was done, but she had fun! I realized I didn't get a picture of Jaxon in his costume at the party because we took it off so he didn't get frosting all over it...but he sure looked cute!

Carving Pumpkins!

Carving pumpkins is always so much fun with little kids...well sometimes! I was talking to a friend of mine eariler in the afternoon on the day we were planning on carving pumpkins and we were both saying how it's fun, but at the same time we were dreading it becuase it's a lot of work, but it ended up being great!

Jaxon was super excited to carve pumpkins this year and Brynn didn't really know what we were talking about when we told her about it. I thought it would be fun to let her paint her pumpkin, thinking she wouldn't really be into carving it, but I was wrong. I let her paint one pumpkin then when she was done with that, she saw what Jason and Jaxon were doing and she wanted in on some of it! So I helped her clean out a pumpkin and she picked the shapes for the eyes, ears, and mouth and when it was finished, she then decided all the guts needed to go back inside the pumpkin...such a big helper! She actually did a really good job and had lots of fun!

Jaxon was really good at carving his pumpkin. He needed a little help cleaning it out and I helped him carve some of it...okay most of it...but when the face was done he decided it needed ears so Jason made an outline of where Jaxon needed to cut and he did it and did an excellent job!

Jordan sat in his highchair and at fish crackers while everyone else was carving pumpkins and was more than happy to do so! Jason have him a chunk of pumpkins to gnaw on and he actually seemed to like it...who knew?

Pumpkin Patch 2009 Version!

I am finally getting around to posting this...it takes me a while sometimes! We went to the pumpkin patch on the 19th for Family Home Evening...we had planned on going the week before but the weather was terrible! It was pretty darn cold this night too. We had a lot of fun playing on the tractors, wondering through the corn maze, and of course picking pumpkins!

Jaxon and Brynn had fun pushing their own little wheelbarrows...although as soon as Jaxon put a pumpkin in his he decided it was too heavy and didn't want to push it any more and Brynn tired her hardest, but had a hard time pushing it straight! I'm sure we were a sight to see!

We had planned on staying a little longer, but it was pretty darn cold, so we did the bare minimum then got out of there...I guess we're whimps!

After we were finished we headed over to Harmon's and let the kids pick a baked good treat (this is kind of a tradition we started last year with doughnuts). This time Jaxon insisted on a cinnamon roll...I would have picked something else, but it was his choice...so Brynn and Jordan got cinnamon rolls too! They kind of liked them, but I don't think they were that impressed...maybe next time they'll stick with doughnuts :)

Caught Up!

I finally got caught up with Brynn! Now I only need to get started on Jaxon's...the last pictures I scrapbooked of him was July 08 and Jordan doesn't even have one started...but I'm caught up with one of them :)