Happy 4th Birthday Jaxon!

On July 8th, we celebrated Jaxon's 4th birthday! I can't believe my little guy is getting so old! It's a tradition to decorate the bedroom door of the person having the birthday...Jason did it for me the day before for my birthday and this is what we did to Jaxon's door. He was so excited when he came upstairs, it was cute!


As soon as he came upstairs into our bedroom, he spotted his pile of presents. Luckily, Jason hadn't left for work yet, so he got to open them first thing in the morning! Notice the pink flower and Christmas wrapping paper? When I went to wrap his presents at 11:00 the night before, I realized this was the only wrapping paper we had, so we wrapped the presents white side out, it worked pretty well, I don't think he really noticed...I hope not anyway!
That evening, we went to Jumpin' Jacks. Luckily Grandma Wallace was visiting and she volunteered to stay home with Jordan, it was nice to just have the two kids and be able to play on the slides and stuff with them, not that we don't love Jordan, but it was just easier! The kids had a great time! Brynn was a little hesitant at first, but by the end, she was climbing up the biggest slide by herself and going down by herself, it was amazing!
Here is Jaxon going down the big slide and if you look closely, Brynn is at the top getting ready to go all by herself!
Brynn had a system for getting up those steps and it was amazing...she could get up there pretty quickly...Jaxon always beat her, but it was still impressive that she could do it by herself!

This is when we first got there and she wasn't too sure about it, but she loosened up and loved it! Jaxon had a great time too and didn't want to leave, but we convinced him to leave by telling him we were going to Coldstone to get some ice cream...really who could resist that? I don't have pictures of the ice cream, but afterwards we went to an arcade next to Coldstone and the kids played around for a little while. It was fun!


I think Jaxon had a great birthday! I asked him if he would stop growing and stay little forever...he thought about it for a minute and said he couldn't because he has to keep growing so he can get big like mom and dad...darn, I was hoping maybe it would work!



Today we had a party with Jaxon's friends, 15 of them to be exact! We had planned on doing the same thing we did last year, setting up a big inflatable water slide and letting the kids wear themselves out on that for an hour, then have pizza, do presents, and do cake and ice cream, and send the kids on their way with their goody bags. Well, apparently we can't always plan on nice sunny, warm days in July!

The party started at 11, so when everyone came, we headed outside and everyone started sliding down the slide and playing in the pool. That lasted all of about a half hour until everyone started complaining they were cold, do inside ALL of us went! All I have to say it it's a good thing we have a finished basement! We tried to play duck, duck, goose and hide and seek, but they didn't last long, so we resorted to opening presents early. That, of course, was Jaxon's favorite part.


Then we headed back outside for pizza and cake and ice cream (for the simple reason that I didn't want 15 kids eating that messy food in my house!). By that time, most everyone had dried off and it wasn't quite as cold. After we ate, some kids chose to go inside and play and some decided to stay out and play on the water slide. Finally, the last 15 minutes it got nice and warm and the sun came out...of course it had to be the last 15 minutes...ugh!


Brynn really enjoyed the pizza and cupcakes and her face showed it!
Jaxon blowing out the candles on his cupcake.

Jaxon had a good time at his birthday party...he is exhasuted now and I am sure glad I have a whole year until the next birthday party...it's fun, but it's sure a lot of work!

Happy birthday Jaxon, we love you big much and are so glad you are our little man!

Fourth of July Fun

This year for the 4th of July, we headed up to the cabin in Bear Lake with Jason's family...it was so nice to have a long weekend where we didn't have to do anything we didn't want to do! The first day we were there after I took a run in the morning (which ended up being 7.5 miles...why, oh why did I do that?!) , we headed down to the lake. My kids had the best time. They had a blast playing in the sand, and the water...mostly the sand (the water was cold!) They had fun playing with their cousins and just hanging out!

Jordan liked to have the waves come up and get him wet, he also liked eating the sand...again! Do you like his swim shirt? I got it and it was "supposed" to be his size, but I'm thinking it was miss labeled...or he's just got a big belly!?
Brynn really enjoyed the licorice, in fact, I'm pretty sure she never went long than about 3 minutes without some kind of food in her hand...I don't know where she puts that food, she's such a skinny thing!
Isn't he sweet? Again, do you like the swim shirt?
Jaxon had a blast playing in the sand with his cousins, I'm pretty sure he could have stayed there all day.
Jaxon had a blast playing in the sand with his cousins, I'm pretty sure he could have stayed there all day.


Jason took Jaxon fishing to a little pond by the cabin and they caught this fish! Jaxon was so excited and he even touched it...this is a big improvement over last year when he wouldn't come close to it unless it was in a Ziploc bag!

We set off some pretty lame fireworks (I have a hard time spending a lot of money on fireworks, it's literally burning your money). The kids thought they were pretty cool. This was Brynn's first year watching them, last year she was in bed, and she thought they were okay...she didn't have much of a reaction to them.


Before we did fireworks, we had a campfire and made s'mores. Well, Jason and I had s'mores, the kids chose not to (where did these kids come from?). Brynn did have a marshmellow she held in her hand for about a half hour straight until she was a sticky mess and I took it away from her, I'm pretty sure she never did actually eat a marshmellow. And Jaxon was quite irritated that he couldn't just leave his marshmellow roaster in the fire with a marshmellow on it and come back and have it perfectly roasted, so guess who go that job...that's right, me!

We had a great 4th of July and I am so thankful to live in this country and to enjoy the freedoms that we enjoy. I am thankful for the brave men and women who fight, have fought, and will fight to keep our country safe!

The Copper Mine

A couple of Saturday's ago, we decided to head up to Kennecott Copper Mines. Jason has been wanting to go for a while and since we live like 10 minutes away and we had some free time, we headed up there. I have only been one other time in my life and that was when I was in seventh grade, so it's been a while! It was pretty cool. It is amazing to see what a huge operation they run and how they do it, it's pretty interesting. The kids had fun for about five minutes and then they were done, and I can't honestly say I lasted a lot longer...it was interesting, but not that interesting! Jason thought it was pretty cool and wanted to look at all they displays they had in the little building, but that didn't last too long when he saw that the kids were losing interest, and quickly!

This is just as we were leaving and Jaxon was done, he didn't want to smile for the camera!

Jordan was great...how can you not love this kid, look at that smile!
Those tires are HUGE!



Like I said, it was pretty interesting and maybe the kids will like it when they get a little bit older, but I'm good for another 15 years!