The Graham Family

January Randomness

2012-01-31T11:00:00.000-08:00

I wish I was posting the pictures from Christmas morning, but for maybe the first time ever, John and I both totally spaced it on bringing the camera with us. My mother-in-law was so kind to be our stand in photographer for the weekend and did get some great shots of the boys, and let us use their camera for the hour we got at Diamond Lake of playing in the snow, BUT, we also failed to download them onto our computer and haven't made much of an effort to get them yet. Hopefully sometime this year I will get those up here.

For now, enjoy the random few pictures I found on our camera:

I REALLY have enjoyed doing preschool with Jackson and his buddy Brayden... it's a lot of fun and Jackson is just soaking it all up. It has reminded me just how well I work with this age and how much I really enjoy it... I am still hoping to have a bigger preschool out of our home one day. Anyways, for December we decided to forgo "The Letter of the Week" curriculum we've been doing and just focus on Christmas. I found some great craft ideas from pinterest and here are just a few that we did:

Reindeer using the boy's handprints and thumb prints

Christmas Lights using their thumb prints... even Baron was able to do this one mostly on his own after I drew the cord on the paper for them and they absolutely LOVED doing the paint!

Making their own frosting Christmas tress using upside down sugar ice cream cones!

The scar without stitches

It snowed!! It didn't ever really stick at our place, which was highly disappointing, but we at least got to watch it fall and go out and catch some snow flakes on our tongues

and just like that it turned back into rain...boo

The boys put their coats on backwards and thought they were hilarious... I'm so grateful for their humor and creativity. It never seems to end and I love it. It keeps me going.

This picture is a little blurry, darn it, but if you look close, there is something different about jackson...

He lost a tooth! Well, he had to get his front one pulled out by the dentist because it was dead in the roots and getting a small infection from hitting it a while back, BUT, his big tooth is not far behind anyways and he was pretty excited to get a visit from the tooth fairy and loves to show everyone his missing tooth!

Sometimes we just get so tired of the rainy weather and weren't feeling up to any trips to OMSI or the Children's Museum. So we busted out some TP instead. The boys were thrilled I would let them waste a whole roll and make them mummy's.

And that's about it for our January... it was not too exciting of a month. In fact, being full of lots of rain, another unexpected ER trip, a nasty Flu bug for half of us and some colds, and a stressful month in apartment managing, I am happy to see it go. Here's to hoping February is a better month. I have high hopes.

Baron had a birthday!!

2012-01-10T20:02:00.000-08:00

I know, I know, I am about a month behind now, darn it. Let's just say I've been totally out of it and am trying to get it together. Back on Dec. 9th, Baron did indeed have a birthday and he turned 3!! Which is crazy... he's my baby (at least for now), and I DO NOT want him to grow up so fast, but unfortunately he is doing just that. Sigh. Anyways, we had a fun few days surrounding his birthday! The night before, we decided to brave the crowds and go to the Portland Zoo lights for the first time ever, and it was SO worth it! I would highly recommend it for a fun Christmas family activity when you've got younger ones that love Christmas lights. And if you go before the 15th it is buy one get one free! Plus, 3 and under is free, so we just had to pay for one adult and Jackson since Baron wasn't turning 3 until the next day :). The boys really loved all the lights- and there are so many and tons of cute animals and whole trees decorated, etc. The train was super cute and fun too and we lucked out with it not being too crowded that night! Our only complaint for the whole night was how stinking cold it happened to be that night....but we tried our best to dress super warm and finished off the night with some warm carmel apple spice cider :).

On Friday, the big day, we sang to Baron, let him open presents, bought Cars 2 for him to watch and then that afternoon headed over with our best buds, The Jensen's to Pump It Up. I am so glad we went... the boys (and cute Miss Lucy) had a BLAST. They had so much fun jumping around and racing down the slides and through the obstacle course. They were practically falling asleep at dinner afterwards! Baron really wanted to go to Red Robin so he could get balloons and have them sing to him. Even though he gets so shy with the attention, he kept asking if they were going to sing and he would get the "ear ballons" and he loved it! It was pretty cute. After that we came home, ate some cake and ice cream and watched a fun family movie (in which I'm pretty sure I fell asleep so I have no idea if it was a good one). It was a great day though and we are so blessed to have Little Bear in our lives!

It's pretty much impossible to get good pictures at an indoor play place where they are constantly in motion, but here's what we did get from the day:

The birthday boy on the "fast slide"

Jackson, aka Superman

Bear is definitely our little tumbler... if you know him, you know is always jumping and tumbling around and standing on his head and doing summer salts.... this place was like his dream come true. Perfect for his special day!

I love this one... I know it's a totally blurry action shot, but you can still see the pure joy exuding from their faces.... seriously, they all had bright red faces by the end from all the giggles and running around playing. I'm so glad we had a great groupon for it and went!

Not a great picture, but shows the cool little obstacle course they had... they loved having us "time them" to see how fast they were.

Getting sung to at Red Robin

Here's some fun facts about Baron at 3 years old:

*Loves randomly standing on his head, ALL the time

*Eats grape tomatoes like they're candy and has been known to ask for them first thing in the morning and been caught lying on the kitchen floor eating them like they're chocolate. (though I promise I've never eaten chocolate while lying on the kitchen floor)

*Loves being tickled and has the cutest little giggle ever

*Hates wearing socks... just try to get him to put and keep them on

*Is now in Sunbeams and has done great so far and loves it! (I can't believe I have 2 kids in primary!!)

*Is obsessed with being Darth Vader

*LOVES gum and is found quite often rummaging through my purse to steal all my gum

*Is such a daddy's boy and will chose daddy over mommy about 80% of the time (though I do occasionally sneak in some cuddle time and hugs and kisses)

*Does not like to cuddle very much though and is very big on doing everything himself- he likes his space too

*Can apparently play the bugle very well- better than the older kids! He found my dad's old one when we were in CA and him and Uncle Josh would play it throughout the house everyday. We think it's his cute chunky checks that make him so good at it... he can store lots of air in them :)

*Is smart and talks so well! He is always continuing to amaze me the things he comes up with and says with his sweet little voice.

*His bff, besides being his big brother Jackson, is still his puppy dog. He plays with him every single day, always sleeps with him, talks for him, has puppy help him do his chores and even sometimes blames puppy dog for the reason he did something he wasn't suppose to. Puppy dog is everywhere... sometimes I have to put him on time out.

*Loves Jackson- they love to play tackle football together, have intense light saber fights, climb up into the top bunk and hide and play and giggle together and always miss each other if the other is not around. I absolutely love that these 2 are so close and have so much fun together every day. Such a great feeling for a mom.

*He still has a great sense of humor and is always keeping us laughing. The only bummer is that he sometimes has a hard time giving us a "normal" smile for pictures

We get a good one every now and then though :)

We are so grateful to have Little Bear in our lives. He is so much fun, is hilarious and has brought us lots of joy in our family. Happy (Belated) 3rd Birthday Bear!!

Bear's ER Trip

2011-12-24T10:11:00.000-08:00

Many wanted the full story and pictures... I just have a few from my camera on my phone, so they're not great, but I am glad I have something to document so we can look back later on it when we've all fully recovered. I know its so soon afterwards, but John drove back to Diamond Lake this morning to go pick up his parents and Heather and Jackson and the rest of the gear, so Bear and I are just hanging out all morning and afternoon by ourselves, watching some Kung Fu Panda 2 and taking it easy. So here's the story:

We drove down late Thursday night to Glide to spend the Christmas weekend with the Grahams (john's parents and sister heather). Friday our plans were to drive the 2 hour drive out to Diamond Lake where we were going to play in the snow, do some fun sledding, stay the night in the cute little cabins by the frozen lake and then get up Saturday and do a few hours of snow mobiles before heading back to Glide in time for Christmas Eve traditions.

Turns out we only got about an hour of play time, well at least for John and I and Bear. After checking in to the cabin and unloading all the food and gear inside, the boys got to do some small sledding and snow angel making, but we were planning on driving over to the other side of the lake for better sledding and snowman making saturday morning. After about an hour of that, we decided to walk around the lodge and check out their Christmas decorations and see the changes they've made there. While walking in between buildings, the walkway was covered in ice and Baron, who happened to put his hands in his coat pockets at that moment, slipped and did a full on head plant straight onto some jagged ice since he couldn't get his hands out in time to catch himself. John was able to be there right away and immediately saw that it was going to be a bad one. There was lots of blood. Grandma Sue and I sprang into action getting a towel and a first aid responder since John couldn't do much but hold his head shut until we got some help. John, using his eagle scout skills,( haha, mom that was for you!) was able to get most of the serious bleeding stopped and we got help wrapping up his head before loading him up into the car and heading back down the very windy, long, 2 hour trip back to Roseburg to the ER. LUCKILY, he had no signs of a concussion. I feel so blessed by that.... it would could definitely have been much worse. Because he wasn't concussed and is the best little trooper ever, the drive was actually ok.... we got him some tylenol and turned on Toy Story and he was pretty happy the whole way. It was more John and I's nerves from the slow windy roads that seemed to take FOREVER that was the biggest pain of the drive back. Baron was great, even laughing at good ole Buzz lightyear and the gang.

I hate ER's.... they take forever and never take you serious at first. The first nurse/doc that we finally got back to see pretty much balked at us (before even taking a look at his cut) when we asked for a plastic surgeon/specialist if available, a trick my parents told us about for face wounds this bad. The doc even had the nerve to tell us that most likely she would just have to put a little glue on his "cut" and we'd be on our way. I WANTED TO THROW SOMETHING AT HER I was so MAD. HELLO! We've done the super glue 3 times on this same little guy's head before.... we know the difference between a small split and a huge gash. ANYWAYS, she finally took a peak and immediately changed her tune with a "OH!! yeah, he's going to need much more... lets get a room set up for him!" YOU THINK?? URGH. Luckily, we got put into much better hands at that point and didn't have to deal with her anymore.

A few hours later, some GREAT guy nurses and a wonderful doc had it all numb and clean and stitched up with 8 stitches. Baron did great... he really did for the situation. Of course there were some cries and a mighty strong effort to get loose (they kept saying, "this is a strong little guy!") and some mommy tears shed from the hall, the closest I could get without breaking down, but, he was a real trooper and brightened right up after they were finally all done and one of the nurses gave him his very own little teddy bear as a souvenir. I think they really liked him. Who wouldn't like our sweet Little Bear after all? =)

After a quick drive through Wendy's for some burgers and well earned frosty's, we headed back to Glide where we stayed at John's parents place for the night (his parents and heather stayed back with jackson at the cabin for the night). It was tough to hear him whimpering half the night and I had to calm him back down after some night mares and complaints a few times, but over all, he did pretty well and is feeling MUCH better this morning. And I really don't blame him for his nightmares and flashbacks.... I also had a tough time sleeping just seeing the image of his cut and how ginormous and wide it was in the hospital after they cleaned it all out and before the finally closed it up -which we were surprised how long it sat like that! Seriously- like an hour. It was making me sick, but I guess they wanted to make sure the anesthesia was really working well and it wasn't bleeding as much. We are very happy to be done with that and out of there. He will have them in for at least 7 days if not longer most likely they said since it was so deep. It was pretty long too and could have put a lot more stitches in, but the doc did a great job spacing them out and using the smaller thread which will hopefully help with the scaring. Good thing he's a boy though (which I kept saying the whole car ride to the ER), and hopefully the girls will actually like it rather than be turned off from it :).

And now for the pictures.... don't worry, we did NOT take any gruesome pre stitches photos. We both thought about it so we could show just how nasty it was to the parents, but then decided we did not ever want to see that again... it was bad enough it was stuck in our heads already!

On the way to the ER in the Car... really hoping all the blood on his jacket (and all over John's) comes out in the wash!

This was right after they finished and put some antibiotic ointment on top of the stitches. We had to wait forever afterwards for all the final paperwork. So annoying. I just wanted to take him home! This was probably the best picture that illustrates how big it was for his little head.

Back in Glide with some new Christmas Eve pj's opened early... we needed all the joy we could get. I even let him open a small toy present early that night too!

I know this next one is blurry, but I love his cute little smile (and am really loving the cute pj's Grandma Sue and Heather picked out!), This just shows what a happy little trooper he really is.

This morning watching some cartoons with his new little Bear he got from the nurse and of course his ever present puppy dog. Like his HUGE forehead bandaid?

All in all, we are just so happy our Little Bear is OK and many prayers were answered! LOVE THIS LITTLE GUY!! Let's not do this again though, especially so close to Christmas. Not exactly what we had imagined for the weekend :)

Cutting down the Christmas Tree!

2011-12-19T10:07:00.000-08:00

I am sure I have mentioned this in previous yeas, but I just absolutely love our Oregon tradition of going to a tree farm and cutting down our own Christmas tree.... so much fun! And the boys this year had a really good time too. We went with some friends to this tree farm up in the mountains a little ways and it was gorgeous out there.... the have a perfect view of Mt. Hood! So jealous. Anyways, after a short search around for the perfect tree, some chopping/sawing, some swinging on swings, some hot chocolate and hot apple cider drinking, and some great boy scout knot tying skills put to use, we had our tree securely attached to the top of the car and headed home to set it up and decorate! Love this Christmas tradition!

Found the tree!

Helping Daddy chop down the tree

This picture was taken right into the sun... not a good idea. None of us could even stand to look at the camera, haha

Carrying the tree back up to the car!

All wrapped and bound down!

The Beach and the Rest of CA Trip

2011-12-13T18:23:00.000-08:00

After getting back from the mountains, we got to spend the rest of the weekend with John's older brother and family, Nick and Christi and their cute girls Reagan and Alice. We were so happy they drove down from Vegas and spent a few days at the beach with us. The weather was perfect, even getting to 80 on Sunday and Monday, and we were all able to have a great time together! Thanks again for coming guys! The kids especially had a great time... Jackson and Reagan loved the water, which really wasn't too cold, especially compared to Oregon water. They got right in and did some boogie boarding and body surfing. John and Nick especially had a good time riding some waves and I was able to get some great pictures from our fun time! Be prepared for lots of them!

The only time Baron ever got anywhere near the water!

He loved digging in the sand though!

Jackson really loved the water!

Nick and John after catching some waves

Uncle Josh taking Jackson for a ride

Love these pictures of Jackson and Reagan

Josh and Brittany mattress surfing- the literally blew up their air mattess and took it surfing!

They convinced John and I to try it too.... and it was a blast!

Jackson and Deacon

Love this picture... little Kaylee is just so dang cute!!

And here's a few extras from our trip:

Kaylee loved pushing Baron in the car... it was so cute!

Love this little girl!

Baron found a cowboy hat and belt and put on Brittany's boots and walked around like this one night for a while saying he was a cowboy.

Both Jackson and Baron love Cali- Josh & Brittany's cute little dog

Thanksgiving in the Mountains

2011-12-03T21:32:00.001-08:00

This past Thanksgiving was the first Thanksgiving I have been able to be home with my family since before John and I were married.... that's 7 YEARS of Thanksgivings away from home. Luckily in those 7 years we've been able to be with John's family for the holiday and have had some wonderful Thanksgiving days.

There's nothing like being home for the holidays though and it was SUCH a wonderful one this year!! During the week we had tons of fun and hardly slept at all. Sunday we got to have a little Christmas kickoff at my sister Shannon's home where we watched Elf and drank hot chocolate, played games for hours, laughed a ton, watched the boys wrestle each other and then wrestle Aunt Burtney (also known as Brittany), and ate some good food. It was a blast. Monday was Colby's 15th birthday and we got to tease him like crazy after some cute girls in the stake dropped him off a candy gram and some goodies and then got to play at the park during the day and go out to eat with all the Baron family to celebrate that night. Tuesday was a really nice day too. John and Josh ( my sister brittany's awesome husband) were awesome and watched the kids all day so we could have a girls day! YAY for girls days!! We got spa pedicures, went out to Cafe Rio, did some hair supply shopping, and went to see the new Twilight movie... which was shockingly pretty good (that's saying a lot coming from me!). It was so fun to have that day with my sisters and mom! We had a blast. My sister Brittany also cut my hair and colored it over those few days and worked wonders with my hair... I seriously love it and have gotten so many compliments on it! She is amazing! She knew exactly what my hair/head needed to look good again!

The day before Thanksgiving we packed up and headed up to my Grandparents place in the mountains to spend the holidays with The Billings (my mom's side of the family). I love going up to their place... they live in this gorgeous log cabin with a HUGE kitchen for lots of good meals (seriously, i always feel like we gain 10 pounds when we go there), a HUGE kitchen table where lots of games are played, lots of room, a beautiful view of the mountains, and they have lots of tractors to ride, a volleyball court and best of all, horses to ride!! They boys were so excited to be able to ride the horses. They found these sweet little kid motorcycle helmets to wear while riding, which made for some awesome pictures. Anyways, I love the billings family... always so many laughs and good times, including some pretty great family volleyball games. It was so hard to leave Friday to head back to Orange! But not to fear, we got TONS of pictures to document our fun! And sorry about the long description... since we only get a trip like this every 7 years, though I am hoping to change that, I wanted to get a good family journal entry of all our fun! Without further ado, here are the pictures:

Early morning sling shot shooting with Uncle Colby

So Gorgeous!!

Baron riding the tractor with Grandpa

Brushing the horses with Grandpa Billings (my grandpa- the boys Great-Grandpa)

My cousin Kelsey is a senior in high school right now and really into photography.... we got her to take a few family pictures for us, even though it was pretty chilly out! She was so sweet to take them!

This one was the best family one we could get... the boys are impossible when it comes to family pictures

My handsome 5 year old

And my goofy soon to be 3 year old

Always makes me so happy these two love each other so much!

LOVE THESE BOYS!!!

Shooting with the boys

After Thanksgiving dinner.... there's my grandma in the back!

And here's the motorcycle helmets... they wore them all day

It was a beautiful day!

Uncle Colby

Aunt Burtney

This year during the Thanksgiving season the top 5 things that I am most grateful for are:

1. Being able to be with family for the holidays!

2. The support and love we have received this last year from family and close friends

3. My little boys- I cannot stop hugging and kissing them and enjoying them more and more each day... they are seriously hilarious, so creative, so cute and sweet, so good and easy and so much fun!

4. My wonderful husband who has seriously been my rock this year and truly my best friend

5. The temple and having one close by. Nothing brings me greater peace and strengthens my resolve and adds more strength to my week than spending a few hours in His house

Jackson Turns 5.... say what??

2011-12-01T20:15:00.001-08:00

Yes, it's true. I now have a 5 year old. CRAZY, yet he most definitely looks and acts like a 5 year old... sometimes more like a 10 year old.

This year Jackson had one of the most exciting birthdays he will probably ever get.... on his big day, we flew on an airplane down to Southern California to Grammie and Papa's house and were able to have a Star Wars party with his Uncles and Aunts and Cousins. We also sort of celebrated Baron's birthday too since we were for once with family around their birthdays (Baron's is coming up this next week!) They had a GREAT time. They got to watch Star Wars for the first time, played non-stop, opened presents (which consisted of mostly Star Wars toys), sang Happy Birthday and ate cake and ice cream. It was a very fun night!

The Cake my mom made... you can't tell too well from this picture, but those are all star wars pictures on toothpicks. The boys loved it. And Jackson had asked for a chocolate cake with green frosting, so it was perfect!

Jackson is such a sweet and fun little boy to have in our family. He still loves and excels at all sports including swimming, he never forgets to say thank you, is always concerned about everyone else, loves to compliment others, loves singing in primary, is still amazingly tall, LOVES preschool and learning how to read and about new things, writes his name and letters like a pro, loves figuring out how to spell words, is super into transformers and star wars right now, is an amazing big brother and loves his brother, can be such a goof ball at times, and is seriously so much joy to have around! He is smart, kind, sweet, energetic and cautious.... all in one lean, tall and handsome little boy body. LOVE THAT KID!!!

Singing to Baron next to his cousin Deacon

Halloween Festivities 2011

2011-11-15T13:12:00.001-08:00

I just realized that I had put some pictures of our Halloween festivites up on facebook for some family to see, but never blogged about it!

We had a fun, busy and stressful at times Halloween season this year. I had 2 carnivals within 4 days of each other -one was a multi-stake priest/laurel one that our stake was in charge of so the laurel leaders helped out and the other was our ward Halloween carnival that the Laurels were in charge of putting on for the primary kids, with the enlisted help of the rest of the youth in the ward. It was a busy month full of planning and running around to various stores! Both were a little stressful but turned out great! Unfortunately since I was literally running around like crazy, I do not have any pictures of our boys at the carnival. They did have fun though!

Besides those 2 events, we were able to go to a great pumpkin patch for a preschool field trip, go to Tualatin's Giant Pumpkin Regatta races and festival, make some halloween sugar cookies, watch some scary movies and carve pumpkins with the Jensen's, go to the Children's Museum Boo party and of course, do some trick-or-treating Halloween night. We were so pooped and done with Halloween by the end. The boys absolutely loved it though, as you will see in the HUGE smiles from the pictures I was able to capture during the month:

LEE FARMS

Tualatin Common's Giant Pumpkin Regatta

Carving Pumpkins

Portland Children's Museum BOO PARTY

Halloween Night

September Camping at the Coast

2011-10-18T12:18:00.000-07:00

We decided very last minute with some friends to go camping at the coast the weekend after labor day. We were so lucky to get gorgeous and super warm weather in September this year and decided we couldn't pass up the opportunity after a crazy, not as fun as we hoped summer, to get out to the coast and enjoy some sunshine, nature and family time with good friends. We love the Gardiner's! They are a blast.

The boys of course absolutely LOVE camping (making all their Daddy's dreams come true) and they had a great time digging in the sand at the coast and playing in the water. We camped out at Cape Lookout Friday night and headed up Saturday afternoon (after a brief, but satisfying stop at the Cheese Factory for some cheese samples and delicious ice cream), to Oswald Park/Short Sands beach. It was GORGEOUS. We stayed until dark and ate BBQ beef sandwiches in the parking lot before finally giving in to the fun and relaxing weekend and headed back in to Portland. It was a really nice and much needed little get away, and was our first trip with our new Sequoia... and it definitely passed the test. Now for the pictures:

My goofy little boys. We set up most of the campsite and good food (seriously, we ate some good camp food!) around the Gardiner's site... hence the bare table and campsite shown here.

Saturday morning at Cape Lookout campsite beach... it was pretty foggy most of the morning.

It was an 80 degree, beautiful day a few miles up at Short Sands beach

From inside a cool cave on the beach we found

Here's John pulling the boys on the boogie board through the water.... they thought it was so much fun... Jackson has no fear of the water. I love it.

Jackson insisted we burry him in the sand... I was happy to oblige.

Our little Missionary/Gumby

This was as far as Bear was willing to be buried.

Jackson found a stick and loved drawing pictures and his name in the sand

Gorgeous sunset- this one just might end up on our wall at home.

The man that Brittany made

Goodbye gorgeous, beautiful beach... thank you for a wonderful day!

Oaks Park

2011-10-02T21:08:00.000-07:00

The company I work for has their annual company picnic every year at Oak Amusement Park in Portland.... it's the only amusement park in Oregon (well closest thing to an amusement park- it's no where near the CA ones). The company serves tons of great food, does some fun games for the kids, has free face painting and gives everyone free passes to all the rides! It's great! I really like the company we work for. They are very organized and on top of everything, and treat their employees pretty good. Anyways, the boys always have a great time when we go to Oaks Park and had a blast again this year.

There was candy and coins inside of the hay for the kids to find.... Jackson came away with $5 in addition to lots of candy!

We sat and watched this ride for a little while... the boys thought it was awesome. I will not be going on that anytime soon.

A funny note from the day.... on all the little kid rides Baron would just sit there happily, or stick his tongue out, but never break out in a big smile. We kept wondering if he liked the rides, but he said he did and wanted to keep going on them over and over. It wasn't until we went on the mini roller coaster that he finally broke out in a HUGE grin. Turns out he's really just a little dare devil who prefers the bigger, scarier rides. When we took Jackson last year on the roller coaster, he cried. This year Jackson loved it, and Baron (this year was his first year being tall enough for it) couldn't get enough of it and wanted to go again and again. We had a great day!

Grammie's Visit

2011-09-18T18:55:00.000-07:00

My mom was so kind to fly out here and help us out.... she did so much for us, and luckily, we were able to get in some sight seeing and an afternoon at the Saturday's market with her. The boys had SO much fun with her.... they definitely loved being spoiled by Grammie!

The Columbia River Gorge

The View Point Inn from the 1st Twilight movie... sadly most of it was burnt in a fire just a month before and has had to shut down. If you look closely you can see the roof is all burnt up.

The view from the Inn down to the Columbia River was so pretty!

Summer 2011

2011-09-13T21:26:00.000-07:00

Though this summer was pretty stressful and taken over by unplanned various events, we did manage to get some fun in and enjoy some sun! I have a ton of pictures not blogged yet. I am going to be playing catch up over the next little while. Here's some of our "fun" times from the summer of 2011:

Glide, Camping at Diamond Lake and Crater Lake Trip:

Go Aunt Heather!

I love the North Umpqua River.... so pretty!

Here's me in between throw-ups :) And that's about the only picture John was allowed to take

Dancing around some left over fireworks at night

Fishing on Diamond Lake... it was such a pretty day!

Mt. Thielsen

Our attempts at getting one good picture of them both smiling and looking at the camera at the same time

Crater Lake

Love these two... always such goof balls together

relaxing in the rocking chairs enjoying the gorgeous view of the lake while trying to get over my car sickness/preggo sickness. it was not as fun an afternoon for me =(

6 years going on 75

2011-08-20T23:11:00.000-07:00

First of all, just wanted to say THANK YOU, from the bottom of our hearts for all of your sweet comments from my previous post. They were so wonderful and comforting to read. A big thanks to those of you who shared your own heart breaking/strengthening experiences with miscarriage. It was very helpful to hear and feel from you. Once again, we feel so blessed to have so many amazing and strong friends and family.

On another note, today marks 6 years of marriage for John and I! I want to say the typical, "Wow, time flies by fast," because it definitely has, but at the same time, I am starting to get to the point where I am having a hard time remembering what life was like before "us". It definitely has been very hard at times, but SO rewarding and so wonderful too! The best part is thinking about all we have accomplished and overcome together over those past years. Here's our greatest accomplishments so far:

A few nights ago, we lied in bed running down memory lane from the past 6 years, commenting on how much we've changed and what we have been through. One thing we really both agreed on is that the trials and things we have faced and overcome over that time are what have strengthened our marriage the most as we have faced them together.

When we were newly married and in college and had at one time $24 in our bank account, we thought life was SO tough and couldn't get much harder.... that life after college would be absolutely wonderful and stress free. HAHAHA. Oh man, if we only knew then how much more difficult the trials would be, we would have breathed easier and enjoyed it more!

One thing we have both come to the conclusion about though, is that we are never tested with something that is more than we can handle and our Heavenly Father knows exactly what we need at certain times. He started out pretty soft on us only because he knew how young and new to the whole learning and growing from hard times thing we were. Now a days we might think we had it easy back then, but at the time, it was all a 20 & 24 year old newly married, soon to be new parents couple could handle. We needed to learn to work together, communicate better and get a system down. We needed to strengthen our faith and marriage.

From there, the trials/tests have really only gotten more rigorous each time. That is what life is about though.... continually learning and growing form new experiences. Though figuring this out does make me nervous to face what lies ahead since we both know now that the hardest trials are most likely yet to come, we have a lot more faith in the learning process. We have worked our butts off in the past 6 years to come together and thrive through the hard times and build that solid foundation and relationship in our marriage and family. We can face whatever comes. The Lord will test us, but will also be with us and will strengthen us as we work through whatever else may be coming our way.

I am so grateful for all we have been through and all the knowledge and experience we have gained along the way. It truly has brought us closer. I thought I was so in love on that beautiful sunny day 6 years ago, but now, oh man. Now, I REALLY love that man. He has been my best friend and my rock by my side through thick and thin. And that is just after 6 years. I think I am beginning to understand why couples that have been married for 50+ years seems SO in love and why they usually have such a hard time when their spouse dies. I can just barely imagine how much more in love we will be after going through a life time of experience together side by side.

I told John today that I expect to live to be 100 years old and him to 104. =) That's 75 more years of experiences together on this earth. I cannot wait.

So here's to 6 years going on 75! I love you hon!

HAPPY ANNIVERSARY!!! (or Annibirthdays as John has named today) =)

Mourn with those that Mourn

2011-08-08T22:35:00.000-07:00

The past week has been tough. I was originally planning on my next post being a "we're expecting #3!" announcement. Unfortunately I had a miscarriage instead. Hopefully that post will still be coming sometime in the future. I know most people are very "hush hush" about this kind of thing and seem to try to sweep it under the mat, but there are 2 reasons I am writing this post:

1.) To explain & apologize
2.) To record my feelings/count my blessings.

I have already learned a great deal through this trial and have an extreme amount of gratitude that I dont want to ever forget- I am still hoping to make this blog into a book which I am hoping means our kids will read this when they are a little older and get something out of it

So here it goes:

Quick explanation:

I will spare you the gory details.... during an ultrasound last Thursday afternoon (July 28th) to check to see if everything was ok after some warning signs, it was discovered that while I should have been 13 weeks along from the time we knew we got pregnant, the baby showed to be only 8 weeks in size and no longer had a heartbeat. (I had a previous ultrasound at 7 weeks that showed a healthy heartbeat and no signs of trouble). With all the details now, we have concluded that the baby had trouble growing from the start and was not meant to live more than just a few weeks inside me before it returned to live with our Heavenly Father.

An Apology:

I have been SO sick for the past 2 months. There have been some days when I could only handle a diet of applesauce and cheerios. And even some days where I have thrown up that and just sipped on gatorade. It has been really really hard and of course frustrating to end it like this instead of with a precious little baby in my arms.

So, i really feel the need to apologize.....

~Apologize for all the unanswered calls, emails, facebook messages, etc.
~Apologize for those whom I may have accidentally offended because they thought I was ignoring them or decided I thought I was too good for them
~Apologize for my lack of attention/effort to my wardrobe and makeup and hair
~Apologize for my lack of energy and enthusiasm and lack of effort put into my normal activities and callings.

Our family has honestly been in survival mode the last 2 months. It has been really hard. I was really sick with Baron and Jackson too, but this one was even worse.

True Empathy:

One thing this experience has given me is greater empathy for those who have also had miscarriages as well. You really cannot truly understand the sorrow (and physical pain and unpleasantness!) of losing a baby, until it happens to you. This experience has given me greater respect to those moms I know who have done this before.... especially those who have had a full 9 month pregnancy only to end with a stillbirth. My heart aches for them so much. I cannot imagine how tough that was for them emotionally. My own mother had 4 miscarriages. I always knew that, but never really thought much besides "that must have been hard" before now. Talking this through with her, I wanted to cry and mourn for her for all those times. I really felt for all her sorrow.

Gratitude:

Of course I have cried a lot and my heart has broken, but something I have gained already from this experience is an immense amount of gratitude. It has been the gratitude that has filled my heart with love, peace and hope. Here are the things I have been feeling gratitude for during this:

**The precious and healthy 2 little boys we already have and who fill my everyday life with so much joy. I am very grateful for them! They have been so sweet and understanding and have filled my heart with so much love and peace with the hugs they have given me through this.

**An amazing husband who has been by my side and really stepped up right from the beginning of the pregnancy through all the sickness, and has been my rock through losing the baby. I honestly don't know what I would do without him. I am so grateful I get him for eternity.

**The priesthood and the opportunity it gives for us to hear our Heavenly Father's personal message of love and comfort for us during out greatest times of need. I am grateful for a worthy priesthood holding husband who can be that spokesman for Him.

**Our ward family. We have had some wonderful friends step up and take the boys and feed us dinner and become our family as we don't have any relatives close by. I am so grateful for the organization of wards and the compassionate people who fill ours!

**My Mom and her words of wisdom. She is the first and only person I was able to talk to on the phone for a while. I love her. I am so grateful for her. Not only did she listen to me cry, she told me the things I needed to hear...like that it was not only ok, but important to take the time to mourn for this baby, no matter how long or short it had lived just in me. She talked me through everything and was exactly the person I needed. I really do feel so badly for her that she had to do this 4 different times, but I also was so grateful that she knew exactly what I was going through and could truly empathize with me and give some much needed advice on all the icky, very physically unpleasant parts of it as well.

**Once again, gratitude for my mom- after I had to have a D&C surgery/procedure done last minute at the hospital last Sunday, my mom told me over the phone (while I was lying in a hospital bed coming out of anesthesia- that stuff makes me so loopy!), that she wanted to send me flowers, but decided to come in person instead. I will forever be grateful to her (and for my dad and brother for sharing her with me!) for this. I can't tell you how much it meant to have my mom here this week. Just to have her to talk to in person was a comfort, but she also went grocery shopping with me, cooked wonderful meals, scrubbed our place from top to bottom, entertained and spoiled the boys, and helped me rest, heal, and slowly get back into the swing of things. It has been exactly what I needed this week. She even managed to squeeze in an afternoon of sewing which resulted in some new drapes for our bedroom, a new pillow for our couch and one for our bed, church bags for the boys, shortened pillow cases and some clothes hemming. She truly is a superwoman!

**And lastly, gratitude for all the love and support and prayers sent our way. I sometimes have struggled to know what to do and say when a friend or family member is going through a loss or just a hard time with a certain trial. I have learned a great deal over the past week of what matters. Here are my thoughts:

The first two days, I really did not want to talk to anyone, except my mom. I needed to cry, vent and hope for the future with her (so with someone you are really close to), but just couldn't really attempt to form words without balling to anyone else. I am sure in a few more days or weeks, I will be able to talk about it more to some friends, but not while it was really fresh... at that point I was just trying to keep it under control. But, some of our family and the very few close friends who we have told (and who so lovingly watched our boys all day for us) just sent simple texts or e-mails expressing their sorrow for us and their love and prayers. Every time I read them I cried. Even just a mere "sending a hug your way" would make me cry.... but in a good way. I could honestly feel the love and prayers sent and it really touched both John and I. It was exactly the support we needed. It honestly wasn't anything long or time consuming. A simple email of "we are thinking about you and mourning for your loss" really meant a lot. Gave a whole new meaning to me of the scripture in Mosiah where it says, "to mourn with those that mourn and comfort those that stand in need of comfort."

All said and done it has been a very bitter/sweet experience and we have a lot of hope for the future. For anyone going through some difficult trials and having a hard time seeing through the pain and frustration to the blessing that will come eventually, listen to this short, 30 minute message:

http://mormonchannel.org/programs/stories-from-general-conference-episode-34?lang=eng#d

I promised it will be worth ever second of your time and I sincerely hope it will touch and inspire you as it has me.

Thanks again to all for your love and support. We truly feel blessed to be surrounded by so many wonderful and good friends and family.

4th of July Fun

2011-07-22T15:10:00.000-07:00

I know it has been FOREVER since I've updated the blog.... I have really good excuses between sickness and vacations and the fact that John took ALL of our pictures off the computer to store it in an external hard drive to save memory space on here before I could blog. Darn.

Anways, we had a great week away last week and took over 200 pictures, but figure I should start before that so I can get those in here! Before we left for vacations, we had a great time on the 4th of July celebrating with The Jensen's, hanging out at Oak Hills waiting and watching the big fire work show. Here are some pictures from that night:

The Progression of a 4 year old "gun"fight:

It's not looking so good for Jackosn here....

SPARKLERS!

Lucy little grin here is so darn cute!

Chief Jack

Hope everyone else had a great Independance Day! We are very grateful for the freedoms we have in this country and for those who fought and are still fighting for us!

Cape Lookout Hike

2011-06-10T10:18:00.000-07:00

Last Saturday we went with some friends from our ward at church out to Cape Lookout, just a few miles south of Tillamook and hiked a total of 5 miles! It was about 2.5 to the end of the trail which overlooks the Ocean and 2.5 back. We had originally thought we would be hiking the shorter trail that ends at the beach, but somehow got the longer, muddy trail instead. So we were a little dissappointed in that, but it was still fun and gorgeous out and we had a view of the coast and ocean most of the trail! I love the Oregon Coast. It is so pretty. Next time we drive all the way out to the coast though, you can bet we will be going straight to the beach and water. John carried Bear in the hiking backpack and Jackson walked/ran the whole way! He was a trooper and loved it! I couldn't believe how much energy he had. He didn't complain a single bit! In fact, he was still singing and throwing rocks by the end when the rest of us were beat. Gotta love the energy of a year old!

The best part of the day? Ending up at the Tillamook Cheese Factory for some delicious grilled cheese sandwhiches and ice cream of course!

Bear was pretty pooped by the end of the trail and took a nice little nap.... it's hard work being carried 5 miles :)

Got 1 minute and 2 seconds?

2011-06-05T11:01:00.000-07:00

Please excuse the yawn towards the beginning.

Happy Sunday!

Evergreen Aviation and Space Museum

2011-06-02T17:45:00.000-07:00

We decided our boys are too hooked on TV, Jackson especially. I try to not to let them watch too much, and we generally go without cable so we don't watch too much, except during football season (GO DUCKS!) and a small time for March Madness of course. We have often talked about getting rid of our TV altogether (well at least in the front room) and just getting a projector for movies. My mom hardly ever let us watch any TV (just movies on Friday/Saturday nights really), and we use to complain so much how deprived we were... I have since thanked her for that and vowed to follow her path.

Putting the TV on time-out for Jackson has been a great motivator for him to have a better attitude, be more obedient, etc. A few weeks ago, the TV happened to be on and I was trying to talk to Jackson. He repeatedly ignored every single word I said. And then I walked in front of the TV and he told me to move because I was blocking it. That was the last straw. I put TV on timeout then and there for 3 days completely until after their Father's and Sons campout. The night they got home from that, they both were kind of giving us attitude and then when we went to pick him up from a friends house that night (since it was date night for us), Jackson wouldn't even say hi to us or turn away from the show they were all watching there. So TV went back on time-out for the rest of the weekend.

On Monday (2 weeks before Memorial Day), I had an idea. We had talked about wanting to do something really fun for Memorial Day Weekend and had decided we really wanted to take the boys to the Aviation and Space Museum in McMinnville. This place is not cheap however, and I didn't feel like taking them while they were giving us tons of attitude, talking back and having no respect.

So, for FHE that night we talked about being obedient and respectful and how the TV can be a fun privilege every now and then, but not an automatic go-to when we're bored. Then I showed them online the pictures of the Aviation and Space Museum and said that if they went without TV for 12 more days and they started being more obedient and respectful to mom and dad that we would go there as a family at the end of the 12 days. They were luckily all for that plan once I showed them the museum pictures. We even made one of those circle chains so they could cut one off each day and see how close to the museum we were.

They made it, and even though they had their bad moments (after all they are 4.5 and 2.5 years old), a quick reminder of not going to the museum got them back in line. I am so glad we did this. It made that day so much more fun to celebrate together and it definitely made family life at home happier and better for us all. We had a GREAT time at the museum! I am SO glad we went! We even got some sunny weather so we could explore the Tank Lawn and play on the Space Playground outside! It was a great way to celebrate the memorial day weekend. And we have TONS of great pictures to document our fun day together.

Can you see us in the next picture? You may have to click on it... that's the Spruce Goose behind us (well only part of it!). It was SO BIG! It took up most of the room. It was so neat to see!!

I LOVE this picture of my boys... aren't they so handsome?! =) Plus, it is totally coincidence that Baron is wearing his Angels shirt and I got just "Angels" in this picture. haha.

And the highlight for the boys was of course the airplane ride there.... I think they would have ridden it all day long if we'd had let them.

This picture makes me smile... Jackson just had to check the bottom of the rockets to see where the fire comes out. It was pretty neat to see the rockets and space launch stuff.

Why can't they ever look at the same time? I may have to combine these 2 pictures.

After the Museum it was time for a Mommy/Daddy treat.... so we headed to the outlets to score some amazing deals on some new work clothes and summer clothes. We were definitely exhausted by the end of the day, but it was a wonderful day! Monday we also had a small bit of sun and had a delicious BBQ and played some serious Wii with some of our best buddies, The Jensen's. I love 3 day weekends! And I am SO grateful to have a weekend to appreciate all those who served and fought in the past for our freedoms in this country and to keep us safe as well as all those who are continuing to serve and protect us today. A GIGANTIC THANK YOU TO THEM!!!

Jackson at 4.5

2011-05-26T09:42:00.000-07:00

I realized I have not done any updates about the boys lately and figured since they are now 4 1/2 and 2 1/2, it would be a good time to do so, especially for our family journal. I have been thinking a lot about them lately and how much they have each changed. I love these little boys. They are SO MUCH FUN!! They are into new things all the time and are the ultimate boys. Nothing makes them happier than camping, running around at the park, playing "superheroes" and "Bad Guys"with their capes and anything around the house that can be turned into a sword or gun. I've been really noticing lately though their qualities and strong points that are coming out more and more the older they get, so I really wanted to write about those, as well as what they are like together. I'll start this post with Jackson and do Baron's next month when he is officially 2 1/2.

ACTION JACKSON.... aka, FELITO

**He has renamed himself as Felito and even introduces himself at the park as so. We have no idea where it came from, but he's been pretty consistent on reminding everyone that is his name for the past month or so. Not sure how I feel about that.

**We have really noticed lately, that one of his best qualities is his memory and attention to detail. When we reminisce with him about a past event, he always amazes us by the types of things about that event/day that he remembers. While the rest of us talk about "that museum, or the movie or the toy," he remembers what everyone was wearing, something funny someone had said, what we ate, who or what else was there, and lots of little details we don't even think to remember. It's a great quality to have! I hope it keeps up!

**A TALKER.... have you ever been on Skype with him?? When he gets excited about something or seeing someone, he will not. stop. talking. Poor Baron can hardly get a, "hi" in to my family when we skype. My parents just laugh because they say it reminds them exactly of me and say that is exactly why Brittany was so shy when she was young... she just could never get a chance to say anything! My bad.

**Loves to draw. This is shocking. He is our child who would bring home a blank coloring page from nursery week after week. He never liked to color. However, since he has learned to draw actual objects and subjects and especially with a pen, he has not stopped. He will fill page after page with people, fish, shapes, robots, "transformers" and all kinds of stuff. He loves it. It reminds me so much of his daddy... John is always drawing furniture designs and random doodles.... I love it, especially because I absolutely cannot draw. Even my stick figures are a disgrace. I have always wished I could draw. Jackson's attention to detail also comes into play here. Even his fish have stripes and eyes and the smallest details you wouldn't normally as a 4 year old think to add onto your picture. Maybe one day he will be an artist, or an architect!

**LOVES sports still and is coordinated. I have probably mentioned it before, but I LOVE this! It is the one area I have no shame in bragging about. John and I both grew up playing lots of sports and having parents who were coordinated. My dad taught us everything, from how to catch and throw a baseball, to playing tennis, smash ball at the beach, even roller bladding and hockey and everything in between! I love that Jackson loves learning and playing all sports too. Just yesterday him and I played frisbee together at the park for half an hour... and it was fun! We were a good 15-20 feet apart and we could really actually play catch. He could throw it right to me and then catch my throw. What other 4 year old can do that so well?? (I told you I feel no shame in bragging about this... it makes me so proud) =) He is also still doing REALLY well in swimming. He can now officially swim across the entire lap pool and is learning how to dive, loves loves loves jumping off the diving board, and his specialty strokes are backstroke and elementary backstroke (the one that looks like a frog). He could do those perfectly forever, and he loves being in the water. Makes his Grandma Sue proud!

(He is often found walking around with his sword in shirt like this- because "I'm a Ninja Turtle" as he puts it)

**Loves primary and loves to sing the primary songs. He walks around singing them all day. I love that he can sing some of them with the correct words now and for the whole song. His favorites are "I will follow God's plan, Scripture Power, and Follow the Prophet." I will post a video on here sometime of his cute little falsetto voice seeing one of these songs... but for now, here is him making up his own music. Can you tell what he is into these days? And sorry it is sideways... not sure how to fix that.

We sure love our Jackson Jeffrey! He is tons of fun to have around!!

A trip down memory lane...

2011-05-06T15:35:00.000-07:00

Tonight we get to go to the temple... a young couple our age in our ward is going through the temple for the first time together. It's a sweet story.... girl meets boy, introduces him to the gospel, he listens to the missionaries and feels the spirit, gets baptized, girl and boy fall desperately in love and get married a few months after his baptism. Now, a year later, they are going through the temple tonight for their endowments and then being sealed together for time and all eternity tomorrow. I am so happy and excited for them. As I was looking through our pictures for something else, I came across this picture:

This is the night I went through the temple for my first time just 3 days before John and I were married in the San Diego, CA temple/castle =). Having this young couple's special night already in my mind, seeing this picture brought back those wonderful memories I will never forget. It was such a special night with the spirit so strong. I can't even begin to describe what it was like to be in the temple with not only my prince charming, but also with all my family and soon to be family there to support me. I couldn't have asked for a better night. I will never ever forget it. I am so glad I married a man who also only wanted a temple marriage and who already had a great love and strong testimony for the importance of temple work, even before we were dating. It was one of the things that helped me fall in love with him the most and is still something I love about him. He's the best. I love going back to the temple with him often... it's my favorite kind of date night. :)

p.s. not everyone that was there with us that night got into this picture... I think we remembered to take pictures a little too late and a lot of family, especially those with kids at home, had already had to leave. I wish I had everyone in there... especially my other grandparents! I do have them in lots of wedding day pictures at the same temple at least. And I wish I still had those shoes.... seeing them reminded me how much I loved them. What happened to them?? Brittany?? haha... you know I am teasing you :) I have no idea where they went. Bummer.

Camping at the Oregon Coast

2011-04-29T14:43:00.000-07:00

Here's the last of Colby's trip.... our Coast Camp Trip! We were SO lucky to not have any rain... it was still pretty chilly, but no rain in April is a miracle! It was SO much fun! We saw so many gorgeous sites! I LOVE how pretty Oregon is!! Here are the pictures from the weekend:

First was a stop at the Tillamook Cheese Factory

Easter Weekend!

2011-04-25T17:37:00.000-07:00

We went down to Glide to be with John's parents for Easter. We love Glide... it is always such a wonderful break to get out of the city, away from jobs and stress and out into the country where it is so calm and peaceful and absolutely gorgeous!

Saturday morning we had planned on driving down to Eugene and spending most of the day there watching Aunt Heather play some softball. We still made it down there to watch her last game, but were a few hours late due to some unexpected trauma. Just as we were getting ready to jump in the car to head down to Eugene, Baron ran into the corner of the tailgate of our truck that was down for loading up stuff. I was putting some things into the front seat when I heard the collision and looked over to see blood pooling on the front corner of his head. It was coming out fast. My first reaction was to put pressure on it to stop the bleeding- by the amount of blood I thought it was going to be a huge gash. So there I was with my hands held firmly against his forehead and blood was streaming down his face and all down my hands. I yelled for John, who happened to be cutting up some wood in the shop at that exact moment and could not hear my pleas. My next thought was to yell for Jackson- he came right away, and was very obedient and went and got Dad right away just liked I asked him too... he didn't even get freaked out by all the blood. I was SO grateful for his immediate obedience and calmness! Jackson saved the day :). John came right after that and grabbed some towels and we got Baron cleaned up enough to see that he did indeed have a gash, but determined it was something we could use superglue on. Thank goodness for superglue!! I LOVE that stuff... this is the 2nd time it has saved us from a hospital trip (both times were Baron- he is our more adventurous and accident prone child). I am also very grateful I felt inspired to throw in the Children's Motrin into my bag last second before we left Portland. It was needed to keep him happy and calm for the rest of the weekend.

After that we still headed down to Eugene, watched some softball, went and picked up John's grandpa's motorcycle he inherited and then grabbed some food from one of favorite places in Eugene that we miss a ton, Ron's Island grill. That place is so good. Then we headed back down to Glide just in time to dye some Easter eggs and watch Tangled together. It still ended up being a nice and fun day together. Just wasn't expecting it to start off the way it did :).

Easter Sunday I was really feeling nasty due to a virus that has left me without a voice and all stuffed up, so Baron and I ended up staying home from church and taking a much needed nap. But the boys had fun that morning finding eggs around the house and on the deck and seeing the fun little gifts the Easter Bunny left for them in their baskets, including a homemade sock monkey and sock elephant that she (the Easter Bunny that is) stayed up late finishing :). We had a wonderful and very delicious dinner made by Grandma Sue that evening, took a nice family walk outside and then very reluctantly packed up and headed home.

It's always hard to leave that place. It is always just the break we needed. Jackson was crying when we left because he wants to live there. Grandma told him he should live there and go to school with them and he is all for it. Both our boys are always so happy out in the country with lots of space and run and play and with Maggie and the cats. Of course it helps that Heather and Grandpa and Grandma are there to spoil them, love them, tickle them, buy them their favorite yogurt drinks that mom never buys, give them ice cream, play Big Bad Wolf with and let them stay up extra late and watch movies together. Who wouldn't be happy there?

Here's my handsome boys on Easter morning:

I LOVE THESE 3!!!

Children's Museum with Colby

2011-04-21T15:32:00.000-07:00

Here's some pictures we got from our trip to the Portland Children's Museum with Uncle Colby... I love that place, and so do my boys!!

UNCLE COLBY'S VISIT!!

2011-04-14T22:07:00.000-07:00

My younger brother, Colby, had 2 weeks of spring break this year due to some budget cuts. SO, lucky for us, we got to have him come visit us for a whole week!! And what a week! I ended up being super busy with my work the first few days he was here, but it was a huge blessings he was here because he entertained my boys and kept them happy and fed for hours! They built forts, played lots of hide-and-go-seek, wrestled a ton, watched some Megamind, played with Gak and just had all kinds of boy fun! It was a lot of fun for my boys to be able to bond with their Uncle Colby- who they think is the coolest kid out there pretty much. Every other word in their vocabulary for the week was, "Colby". "Colby, watch this! Colby look at that! I like your cool shoes, Colby. " etc, etc.

Besides my busy work week, we did however get in some fun! Here are some of the highlights!

Five Guys Burgers and Fries (mmmmm, so tasty)
Multnomah Falls
Voodoo Donuts
Children's Museum
Watching Tron
Trip to REI of course
Magnolia Park
Trader Joe's Orange Chicken
Lots of laughing
CAMPING AT THE COAST!!
Cape Lookout
Cape Meares Lighthouse
The Octupus Tree
Short Sands Beach
Dinner at Mo's
Haystack Rock
Cannon Beach

We were VERY sad to see him go! I'm thinking he needs to come back during every school break!

We took over 200 pictures while he was here, so I will post pictures from each big event and not post them all =)

I love this picture of the 3 boys watching the falls

After Multnomah Falls, we drove across "The Bridge of the Gods" so Colby could step foot onto the state of Washington and add it to the list of states he's been to :) Here he is next to some Washington maps and info.

Baron's donut was white frosting topped with mini m&m's.... he pretty much just ate off the m&m's and was satisfied with that.

Next post.... Children's Museum, followed by our coast trip!

Desires

2011-04-02T18:59:00.000-07:00

General Conference is always so amazing. It is only half way through and I have already learned so much. One of my favorite talks so far was Elder Dallin H Oaks talk on desires. I loved it. It hit so close to a lot of things that have been going through my mind lately. Here are my favorite quotes from it:

"Desires dictate our priorities.

Priorities dictate our choices.

Choices dictate our actions."

What we persistantly desire is what we will become and what will be ours through eternity.

He will judge us according to our works and according to the desires of our hearts.

We may be tempted to seek after property, prominance, pride and power- they should not be our highest priorities.

It is our actions and desires that cause us to become something.

Above all, we should desire to become like HIM.

I really enjoyed this talk for a few reasons.

Every now and then, I lose focus on my priorities. I start looking at other's lives that have taken a different route and find myself starting to desire more and more for things we don't have right now. It makes me appreciate what we do have less and less. That is why things like going to church, serving others and listening to conference are so good- they bring you back and help you re-establish your priorities.

I have almost given up on blogging so many times in the past year or so. I am not talking about in keeping up my own blog (I will continue to use it as a journal so I can print it into books for our family one day!), but in reading other's blogs. I have been frustrated with some of the things people say and constantly post about. It gets harder and harder to relate to old friends when they babble on about how getting married and having children right away is so limiting and takes away all your fun or how you can't have a good marriage unless you wait and go have fun together first and travel and play. It REALLY bugs me. Why?

***I got married at 19. (gasp!) I thought it was crazy at first too when JC wanted me to follow him out to Oregon and be his wife, but only for the reasons of how young I was. I soon learned from a wonderful experience that when you find the right one, there is no point in waiting and that it was the right thing for me personally to do. I knew without a doubt that JC was the right one from the first few weeks we started dating. I had actually dated quite a bit already for a 19 year old before I met him. He was everything I had been looking for in a worthy priesthood holder. It did help that I was extremely attracted to him and he loved sports even more than I did :). He had all the good qualities I had liked from previous boyfriends and none of their bad qualities. He was perfect, and still is.

***We both loved kids and talked from the beginning about how excited we were to be able to raise Heavenly Father's children together. I had wanted to be a mother my entire life (my own mother can vouch for that). We had our first little boy 15 months after we got married. It was 3 months after my 20th birthday. We had our 2nd little boy two years after that. It has been wonderful. Very hard and very tiring at times, but oh so rewarding. Our marriage has thrived as we have worked together to try to figure out how to be the best parents we can be. We have spent so many nights cuddling in bed together talking late into the night about each of our boys- their different personalities, how to help them in areas they are struggling in, how exciting it was to see them accomplish a certain milestone, how hilarious they can be, how forgiving of us they are, and our hopes and dreams for them and our family in the times that are ahead. Nothing has brought me greater joy and happiness. NEVER ONCE have we said we wished we had waited a little longer to have children. I do not believe the whole "you will be stronger and better parents if you wait." I do think it is different for everyone and is something that should be a decision made by you and your spouse with the Lord's guidance on when is right for you and your family. It should not be a decision you decide on based on what everyone else thinks and no one is in a position to tell someone else when they think the time is right for that person. As long as you have righteous desires and a selfless attitude, you will be blessed with help from above and your family will thrive.

*** We have ALWAYS had our needs met. No we don't own a big fancy home yet. Yes we spent the first 3 years of our marriage as poor starving college students. It has been very hard financially at times, but we have always had our needs met and more. Miracles have come from having faith and paying tithing. Prayers have been answered and blessing sent. I cannot even begin to describe how full my heart is with gratitidue. I think that because we didn't start out our marriage with two successful careers and a nice home and savings in the bank, we will always be more grateful for what we do have. We have worked hard and at times have had to put A LOT of trust and faith in the Lord without knowing how things will work out. I cannot wait to be able to share some of those testimony building experiences we have had through those times with our children and grandchildren at a time when they will be ready and needing to hear them.

***Our boys are healthy and HAPPY. SO happy. We love them with our whole hearts. They love us, they love each other and are thriving. It is not what you have around you that makes you a better parent, it is what you desire, what your attitude is and the choices you make. Like Elder Oaks said, it is all about your priorities and the desires in your heart.

THANK YOU Elder Oaks for reminding me of those things I need to be desiring after and what should be my top priorities.

I love being a mother. I love being a wife. I love my family. I cannot wait to "Listen to a prophet's voice" tomorrow. Here's how you can listen if you are not a member of our church and are interested in what I am talking about:

http://lds.org/general-conference/watch?lang=eng

Oh, and one more thing. I have the best husband in the world. I love him. Here's a few of my reasons why, just from this week alone:

** He knew when I was leaving our messy house Wednesday night for mutual that I was stressed out about my boss coming by the next morning. I came home from a wonderful evening in the temple with the youth in doing baptisms to about 3 loads of laundry all folded, dishes done, kitchen spotless, the family room vacuumed and my office all tidied up and looking nice. I wanted to cry I was so grateful for him.

** After an emotional break down and grumpy day from me due to that special time of month, HE was the one to apologize first after I had gotten upset with him. He did nothing wrong! I was the one who was just having a hard day and happen to take it out on him. He also brings me home my favorite kinds of chocolate after hard days, without me having to ask. It always makes my day just to know he knows my heart and desires ( which include cadbury cream eggs....mmmmm)

**He saw me cleaning our bathroom today and went and cleaned the other one while I was still cleaning ours. After that he went and ran errands for me and even went grocery shopping so I could get more stuff done at home, and all without a single complaint. He is a life saver. I LOVE HIM!!

BIG NEWS

2011-03-21T20:13:00.000-07:00

First of all- NO, I am NOT Pregnant. That is not the big news.

Ok, got that out of the way. Just wanted to post some new updates for us.... I apologize for the very belated Christmas post, but since this is like my journal, I had to still get it in there.

Anyways, here's our biggest updates for the past few months:

#1. Baron is officially and completely POTTY TRAINED!!!

It only took about 3 devoted days before he was completely loving the new big boy undies and the idea that he can go potty on his own. The best trick that really clicked for him was sitting him backwards on the pot. Makes it SO much easier and he can even climb up and go on his own! Also, I really mean that he is completely potty trained- he does not wear any diapers, EVER! WAHOO!!!!! About a week after we started potty training I noticed he was keeping his diaper dry at night. So we just decided to go for it and get rid of diapers completely. He's only had about 2 accident's in the past 2 months at night so far! (unlike his older brother who still has accidents once every week or two- not sure what to do about that! Any advice??) He is doing great and I cannot even begin to describe my joy at not having to buy any more diapers for him and not having to clean a messy bum!

#2. I FINALLY got a correct diagnosis for my knee!!!

This is HUGE. It has been something over the past few years that have been really difficult for me. To go from being active and always doing some type of sport or running my whole life to not being able to do anything at all after just having baby #2 was really difficult for me. I have really struggled. The surgery was suppose to help and instead seemed to make everything worse and take away any strength I did have left in that particular knee. SO frustrating. But, after finally going to a highly recommended Orthopedic Surgeon a year and a half after the surgery, there is FINALLY a light at the end of the tunnel. What is different? Well the first thing is that this new Doc after looking at my previous MRI pictures determined that the reason the surgery did nothing and has only in fact slowed everything down is that the first Doc misdiagnosed my knee and that surgery was actually not necessary, or even an MRI. As soon as I explained to the new Doc my symptoms and the original story of when I first noticed things going wrong, he knew exactly what I had. He did a quick and easy Xray from a certain angle that hadn't been done yet on my knee to confirm his suspicions and was able to get a correct diagnosis. So, instead of having some random injury and scar tissue build up causing the pain and inability to fully straighten my leg (which was the first diagnosis), I was told I have Trochlear Dysplasia. He explained that is is rare and is passed down through females in certain genes usually and that because it is so rare, Doctors often miss it and come up with another diagnosis that usually doesn't end up right. After he explained it all about what it is and the gene thing (my sister has problems with her knee cap too!), I just knew it was the right diagnosis finally and that treating that was going to be the right thing that would work this time. It felt right and I finally felt peace over it.

SO, the treatment for Trochlear Dysplasia is A LOT of physical therapy, but the key to it working is this:

Meet my new Best Friend

This is a knee cap stabilizing knee brace. I am suppose to wear it as much as possible (while taking some breaks to give my skin some breathing room and to sleep), so that the muscles around my knee will get used to holding my knee cap in place. That is the biggest problem with my knee is that the knee cap tracks back and forth and is really close to dislocating all the time. That little blue thing holds the knee cap right in place. It takes me a couple of minutes to get it on tight enough and to where my knee cap is really in the right place- which I can tell by if I have pain when I straighten my leg completely. I especially need to wear the brace while doing any physical activity, going up or down stairs and while doing my physical therapy. They say I may have to wear it for up to a year constantly and then after that still wear it while running or playing sports for possibly my whole life. That is a lot, BUT, I am just so happy to know there is a cure and an opportunity for me to be able to run again. That is still 4-6 months or so away because my muscles are totally gone from the surgery, but both my Dr. and my Physcial therapist were pretty positive that I will be able to run again. I have been doing physical therapy for the past few weeks, and already there has been tremendous improvement- which there never was before without the brace and this new physical therapist who is wonderful and really knows what he is doing and how to help me fully recover!

#3- Still love our ward and the friends we have made!!

Just wanted to throw that in there. We have really been able to do a lot of fun date nights lately and hang out with some great friends we've been able to make in this ward. We LOVE our ward. There are so many fun and wonderful people in it. I love my young women.... they are some of the best girls I know and I am super sad to have to say goodbye to 7, yes that's right, SEVEN of them in a few months after they graduate. :( We will be left with 3 laurels after that for a while. Jackson and Baron have also been blessed to have made lots of good friends from the ward too! We recently split a Children's Museum pass with a friend and her kids who are the same ages and it has been fun to be able to go together, especially during the rainy season!

Anyways, that about sums it up for now! I am making a goal to blog more often.... promise. No more 2 months later posts..... hopefully :)

Christmas Happenings

2011-02-26T17:00:00.000-08:00

Yes we did celebrate Christmas this year... I have just been too busy with various Dr. appointments and work and trying to catch up that I haven't had time to think about putting all the pictures from Christmas into a blog post. But here I am.... so let's get to it! Better late than never!

John and I both were able to get the entire week in between Christmas and New Year's off from work. It was heavenly and a much needed break. We took down our cute little apartment sized tree on the 23rd:

and headed out on the 24th down to Glide, OR to John's parents (or Grandpa and Grandma's house as we know it now). We were sad not to be able to go all the way to CA this year to be with my family, but lucky because Nick and Christi (John's older brother and wife) and their girls decided to come out to Glide for Christmas and the break!! It was a BLAST!! It had been way way too long since we have seen them and their cute little girls! Highlights from the week:

**Christmas morning!! I think we had been up and had all the presents unwrapped by 7:15 am. That's what happens when you have 4 kids ages 4 and under in the same house!

**A girls trip into town, WITHOUT KIDS, for Pedicures and to get our makeup done!

**Playing basketball and getting to watch Aunt Heather (john's younger sister) play on the Varsity High School basketball team as a freshman!

**Staying up late watching movies, playing games and sitting in the hot tub

**Having it SNOW!! And driving up to play in even more snow!

**Taking the kids swimming with Grandma Sue!

**LOTS and LOTS of good food!!

**Being together with everyone and getting to do lots of relaxing!

My only complaint is that it went by way too fast. We ended up staying longer than we had originally intended just because their was so much to do and time flew by too fast! We had a great time!

The boys scored in the pj department! Grandma Sue and Heather picked out the cutest pj's for them that were Toy Story inspired, and then my mom made them pj bottoms- Cars ones for Jackson and mickey mouse for Baron. The looked so cute in all of them... I made them change half way through the morning!

The much anticipated Iron Man

He was SO excited

Legos!! Just what he had asked Santa for

Dinosaurs from Grammie and Papa

SNOW!!

I LOVE this picture

Reagan eating some snow

Glide is SO pretty, especially with the snow!

Alice and Baron- most likely doing something they shouldn't be doing :)

Reagan and Jackson... they had a lot of fun together!

2011-01-31T21:39:00.000-08:00

I finally just caved in and bought some more storage space for images so I could update the blog (it was extremely cheap, luckily). So here's a post to get going again and the Christmas one will be coming soon!

Matthew Knight Arena

2011-01-31T21:34:00.000-08:00

Originally we were planning on driving over to the coast this past Saturday, but after we found out the forecast at the coast was suppose to be cold and rainy all day, we decided to postpone that trip. Then I saw online that the Duck's Women's basketball games for the last 3 Saturday games were only $2! So instead, we headed down to Eugene to go watch some bball and check out the brand new UofO Matthew Knight Arena that was just completed! We were dying to go check it out anyways, and were able to convince Grandpa, Grandma Sue and Heather to meet us and come to the game as well! It was really fun, even though the Ducks lost in the end, and we really enjoyed checking out the whole arena. It is really nice and has some really neat murals all over from some of the best teams from U of O history. It was fun to see one mural of Aaron Brooks last second shot in the game against UCLA to win it. That was while John was still going to the U of O and we were there at the game! It was fun to try to see if we could find ourselves in the crowd. :)

Anyways, after the game John's parents took us all out to eat at Outback Steakhouse.....mmmmm. So tasty! I'm so glad we went down to Eugene! The boys also had a GREAT time. Jackson really loved the bball game. Here's our pictures from the day!

Even though this is one of the Oregon girl's getting stuffed, it's still a sweet picture John got...

The Duck

Not sure if there's any difference between these two pictures, but they are two different ones!

My weekend with the boys

2011-01-16T21:23:00.000-08:00

I am sure everyone is getting sick of my New Year's post and I have been dying to put up a post full of Christmas pictures.... but blogger is being weird and telling me there is no more space on the picasa web albums and won't let me add new pictures.... not sure what that is all about. Anybody have any advice or knowledge about that? I really don't want to have to start a new blog, but I just might have to. grrrrrr.

Anyways, the boys are finally asleep and I can't help but sit here and smile thinking about our weekend. It was a great weekend! And you know what I loved the most about it? It wasn't spent at Disneyland or at the beach or on a trip or somewhere expensive. In fact, it was mostly spent at home. We did get to go out to dinner with some fun friends Friday night without our kids and we also got to spend Saturday night at a family in our ward's house eating dinner and chatting away while the kids played with toys and watched Despicable Me. Those were both very fun nights. But what I am thinking about the most right now, is how much I LOVE these two little guys:

They seriously are the best. The rest of our weekend was spent by being shot by invisible guns, playing 3 little pigs and hiding under blankets, jumping on beds, giggling like crazy, watching the boys run around our home wearing batman capes while claiming to be chasing the bad guys, doing lots of dog piles, talking about superheroes and trains and cars and fighting over which fruit snacks are better- the batman or spiderman ones.

It was filled with scenes like coming out of the bathroom to a stick-up and having to pretend injury after the two little bandits shoot you and then watching as they tucked their little squirt guns back into their church pant's pocket and walk away all proud of their "good guy" work.

It was hearing things like, "Hey don't shoot mommy!" (me) and "Yeah, we only shoot Daddy bad guys, Baron!" (Jackson) that made it so entertaining.

And scenes of little naked white buns flying past with water still dripping from their hair after their bath with the cutest little giggles coming out of their mouths that kept me laughing the whole weekend long.

And funny things said like "I need to wear this helmet so I can fly safe" from Jackson who was currently acting as batman that made me want to never let them grow up.

I don't know what I will do when these two grow up and it becomes too cool to go to bed with fake guns and iron man and buzz. It is going to be really hard to see that happen. I am so relieved to know I still have a good while to enjoy it before they do actually grow up. I just hope I never forget the little moments of fun like the ones we enjoyed all weekend!

A New Year!!

2011-01-05T10:04:00.000-08:00

I am really happy 2010 is over. Both 2009 and 2010 were difficult ones (as I am sure it was for many with this darn recession). Although I know there will be some challenging moments and things to overcome in this next year, I am still happy to see it come. I didn't even bother to set any goals or recognize it being a new year last year. With having just moved for the 3rd time in 4 months, not having a place to call home, me not being able to start my new job when we were suppose to (got put off by 2 extra months!), my knee not doing so well after having to live on the 3rd floor for 4 months and having to go up and down the stairs multiple times a day just months after my surgery on it, as well as John's public tax accounting job blowing up and getting as stressful as possible as well as not having any time to study for and pass the CPA with the pressure of needing to pass it from his work, LIFE WAS CRAZY. It wasn't the best start to a new year, needless to say. We have concluded that our theme for 2010 was SURVIVAL, whether we liked it or not.

BUT, it IS a NEW YEAR, and we are determined to make it a better one! Our new theme for the year 2011 is to OVERCOME and to THRIVE. And I am confident we can do it! Mostly because John and I are both in wonderful new jobs now that have been a HUGE blessing, but also because through all our struggles we most definitely learned a great deal about not giving up and trying your best to still have hope, faith and trust in our Father in Heaven to help us get through and come out on top. Another big reason I think we will get through this year while thriving is that we are in the most amazing ward that is SO supportive and loving, and we have FRIENDS!! I mean, good, close friends (and more than just one set of close friends), that would drop everything in an instant to help out and be there for us. It really makes a huge difference, especially when you don't live close to any family. It was difficult for us to make and keep such close friends when we were moving so often and living in a further city away from the ones we had. But after many earnest prayers for some extra support, I really feel like this new ward and living back by some other dear and close friends has been a huge blessing and answer to prayers.

SO, all that being said, BRING ON THE NEW YEAR!! I have been thinking and talking with John a lot about this new year and have come up with a lot of little goals, but also some big, key, main goals for us:

**JOHN**

1. Take out all the trashes without being asked

2. Do all dishes

3. Make dinner once a week

Ok, ok, so maybe these are my goals for John.... hehe. Since he is a big boy, I will let him come up with his own :)

* *STEPH**

1. RESTORE HEALTH-

I am really tired of having the body function of an 80 year old. Plus, we would really like to have another baby sometime before the boys graduate high school :). It is going to take a lot of exercise and dedication, LOTS of not so fun Dr. appointments, a possible MRI, a chance of another surgery, LAB tests, lots of physical therapy (and different kinds, not just on my knee), lots of frustration, patience, prayers and I am sure lots of tears. It won't be easy, that's for sure. But I need to do this. There are some things my body is really struggling with right now and this year is going to be all about getting them fixed the best my body will allow. I am so ready for it. I feel like John's new job couldn't have come at a better time for this too... with health insurance and coverage with his new job being 100 x's better as well as his boss and company being more flexible and understanding and WAY nicer, I feel the timing is perfect. I can do this. I know I can.... but I am still a bit nervous and anxious for it all. Wish me luck!

2. MAKE JOHN'S LUNCH!!

Believe it or not, I struggle to remember to do this for him most days. I am determined to remember most days at least (I know better than to expect 100% after failing so miserably already). I am also hoping this goal will save us some mula in the end too so he doesn't have to eat out everyday!

3. READ THE NEW TESTAMENT

It's been a while... in fact, I am not sure I have ever read the New Testament from beginning to end straight through, every single verse (gasp!). Since it is what we are studying in Sunday School this year I really want to do it. I look forward to having my testimony of Christ strengthened while I read about his life and mission while here on this earth.

4. LESS TIME ON COMPUTER!!

I really think the less time I spend on here, the more time my will kids get from me. I also think the less time on here I spend, the more attention my home, the laundry, the dishes, etc, will get from me. Hopefully this will ease all of our burdens and stress a little more :) But don't worry, I still plan on blogging, since this is my way of journaling and keeping the grandparents and family and friends living far away updated.

**JACKSON**

1. Learn the sounds of and learn to write ALL ABC's and numbers 1-10.

He is doing pretty good. We have gotten to the letter G so far as well as he can write his name, but I really want him to learn them all and be writing them by next year.

2. Master side breathing stroke in swimming and participate in and learn a new sport!

He still loves swimming and is so darn good at it, so we will continue putting him in lessons and are hoping to get into a little baseball, basketball or soccer too!

3. Learn more of the words to different primary songs and memorize a new scripture

He is in CTR 4 now... no longer a sunbeam! How did he get so old??

**BARON**

1. Become POTTY TRAINED!!!

I don't think he will have many problems with this... I really think I just need to find time to work with him and he will do great since he already likes to sit on the potty and talks so well.

2. Overcome the terrible 2's

He really isn't that bad, but every now and then has some melt downs over independency battles. So, he is making a goal to overcome that :)

3. Stop growing up so fast and stay super cute and sweet, PLEASE.

I am really pushing for this one.

That about sums it up! Here's to hoping 2011 is full of Thriving and joy! I know there will be lots of ups and downs, but I am hopeful for this new year. Happy New Year's everyone!! Hopefully those of you that have had tough year's lately will be able to thrive this year as well!!

Bowling

2011-01-04T21:18:00.000-08:00

We went bowling for Baron's birthday. The boys LOVE bowling... especially because they have the ramps and bumpers that make it a lot easier and fun for the little guys. I was able to to score a coupon for a local bowling alley from Groupon and it included a game card to play some of the arcade games and get a chance to win some tickets for prizes! We had a great time! The boys had huge smiles! It was a great way to celebrate our little Bear's birthday!

It's pretty hard to get good pictures inside with the lighting and also without ticking off all the hard core bowling league regulars who are a little too serious, but I had to at least get a picture of Jackson and Baron with their bowling shoes.

Jackson and his faces... I don't know why he can't just look at the camera and smile normally... probably because he is 4 and thinks its funnier to do weird faces

I didn't know they would have their sizes, but they totally did and they were just too cute on them!

They loved all the games!

There were a lot more games, and some that were geared more towards their age, but we were too busy playing them and having fun to take pictures! With their tickets they got some candy and fun little toy prizes. It was a great night!

Baby Bear is 2!!!

2010-12-09T12:33:00.000-08:00

My little Baron is now 2! I really wish he would just stop growing up. I would be happy if he was my little baby bear for 10 years or so... then he can grow up :) . Nevertheless, his birthday is today and he is now 2!! I can't even begin to try to explain what a joy and how much fun Baron is to have in our family. Besides starting to go through a new terrible 2 stage and new independency battles, he is the one that keeps us laughing constantly. He is really funny, super sweet and a big time flirt. He's got little girlfriends all over the place, and has been told (well told to me), that he already has great comedic timing. :) I just can't say enough how much FUN he is!! We LOVE our little Bear!!

Bear also is a GREAT talker for his age. It always amazes me the sentences he is already putting together. Some of my favorites include:

"Mom, my nose is all snotty! Need to wipe it."

"Change my bum mommy. I go poo poo." (I really need to start potty training him!)

"We're making a ship mommy!" (which usually consist of piling up the couch pillows)

"Puppy dog is hungry" (meaning he is hungry.... he sometimes uses his doggie to speak for himself)

"No, don't help me. I do it myself" (so this one is definitely not one of my favorites, but more just one I hear ALL DAY LONG now).

Some other fun facts about our newly 2 year old:

He is REALLY into trains right now and got a new green one for his birthday.

He loves dogs. He has a stuffed puppy dog that he sleeps with every night and carries around all the time. Go HERE to read a post about him and the Graham's dog, Maggie. And here's a cute picture of him putting his puppy dog down for a nap.

He LOVES nursery- anytime he hears someone say Amen in sacrament meeting he yells out, "Time for Nursery!"

He is getting really interested in learning ABC's and anytime he sees letters on a sign, store, street, etc, he always points to them and says, "Look Mom, ABC's!!"

Tomatoes are still one of his absolute favorite foods. Those along with fruit snacks of course.

He LOVES watching Mickey's Clubhouse and has a new obsession with Mickey Mouse. In October I was able to make a quick trip with just Baron to Southern California to visit my older sister, Shannon and meet her new little baby girl, Kaylee. Baron stayed with my parents. They took him and Shannon's son, Deacon to Disneyland. While there, Mickey was walking around and Baron went right up to him and gave him a hug. He was way more excited than scared. My parents also bought him his own little stuffed Mickey Mouse while there and he has slept with it (along with his blanky and puppy dog) every night since. Which leads to the cake I felt he would be the most excited about for this birthday:

And boy was he excited! He kept pointing to his mouth and nose and eyes and ears and say, "It's Mickey Mouse!!" Made the 2 hours we spend on it last night plus the hour the day before totally worth every second!

And here he is opening his presents!

New choo choo, new Buzz Lightyear Backpack, Mickey Mouse pj's and Rex and Slinky Dog toys from Toy Story 3.

Playing with the new toys

And one last random, funny bit about Baron.... he is the funniest sleeper! Whenever we check on them before we go to bed, Jackson is cuddled up in his blankets in the same position we left him, but Baron is always all over the place. I just recently started taking pictures to try to capture this:

Here he is sleeping on the floor next to his bed again... he started to wake up when I took the picture though.

Oh, and he loves to stand on his head.... he does it all the time.

And he loves to make messes.... BIG messes.

This was all the styrofoam from the train table him and Jackson got together for their birthdays from Grammie and Papa.

LOVE THIS KID!!! HAPPY BIRTHDAY BARON JAMES!!!!

Thanksgiving 2010

2010-12-06T20:22:00.000-08:00

We had a very relaxing and fun Thanksgiving! John was able to work a half day from HOME on Wednesday (one of the many wonderful things about his new job that is SO much better than PwC...never would have happened there!) so we were able to leave after lunch this year and miss most of the traffic! Wahoo!! The past 2 years we have sat in hours of traffic since we would leave around 6pm like everyone else on the busiest travel day of the year, so it was such a nice break to leave earlier this year, miss traffic and get to the Grahams in Glide by dinner time instead of around midnight! So nice. Anyways, we had a great weekend away with family:

***Thursday- THANKSGIVING DAY!!

Got to sleep in, watch the Macy's Thanksgiving Day parade, make the super yummy Baron family recipe of Guliver's Creamed Corn, play some basketball with Heather and Gale and headed on down to Eugene to have the feast with the Graham's up there! Unfortunately, we didn't even bring out the camera the entire day :(. I guess we were too busy having fun, especially with the traditional Bingo games after the feast :). This year I am very thankful for:

*John's hard work and continued patience. He is the best. Honestly don't know what I would do without him. SO glad I decided 5 years ago to marry him and follow him to Oregon!

*John's new job!!!! Can't even begin to explain what a HUGE blessing his new job is and what a great place it is to work, especially compared to PwC. The people he works with are a million times better and more honest and fun!

*My two little guys that are honestly sometimes the only way I have been able to make it through some difficult times and come out on top.... they really do keep me laughing and smiling and make me proud. I feel so blessed to have such sweet and good little boys!!

For family night before Thanksgiving we talked about the things we are grateful for and each came up with 3 of our favorites for this year. The above 3 are mine, but here is what Jackson came up with (and I promise he came up with them on his own!):

Jackson is grateful for:

*Swimming
*Baseball
*Baron (made me so happy to know how much he truly loves his brother!!)

back to our weekend though....

***Friday- Shopping, Christmas Tree Hunting, GAME DAY, & some B-ball!

Didn't get up and make it into town until after 7:30, but still got all the toys and good stuff (like nice new sheets for John and I that were SO needed) that I wanted! Walmart wasn't even packed at all- in fact I have seen it way more packed than that in Roseburg. I just went to Walmart and Fred Meyer and that was good enough for me- I am really not a huge Black Friday shopper- my family/parents never went growing up. John stayed home with the boys of course.

Friday afternoon we went and chopped down our Christmas Tree! It's always a tradition to get it from the same place out in Glide the day after Thanksgiving and it is always fun, especially with the boys being old enough now to really enjoy it! Then, we got back home just in time to watch THE DUCKS play some football and extend their winning streak! After the game and dinner we all headed back over to the gym to get some more basketball 2 on 2 in. It was fun (even though I still have to hop around on my knee like a gimp) to shoot some hoops again. I really miss playing. John and I met playing ball. It is something that comes naturally and is fun with being an awesome workout, so I really really miss playing and being in shape (and having the full use of my left knee).

Aunt Heather and Baron

Grandma Sue & Jackson with Papa in the background going after a tree

These 2 are good buddies

Bear kept wandering off on his own to explore

Heather with her sweet beanie (that's her beanie, not her hair)

The whole Christmas Tree Hunting Gang

Eating ice cream and watching Elf (the ice cream always seems to happen at Grandma's house now :) )

***Saturday- HP7, Christmas Music and More Good Food!

Saturday we got to sleep in a little again, hung out and then the Graham's were super nice and watched the boys so John and I could head into town and see HARRY POTTER 7!! It was SO intense and SO good! It was my favorite by far and we both absolutely loved it and would definitely recommend going to the theater and seeing it if you read the books or saw the other movies or just want a good movie to see. I thought they did a great job staying with the book and getting the most important parts in there. The rest of the day we hung out, turned up some Christmas music and just had fun not having the work or worry about anything! That night Sue made yet another mini Thanksgiving dinner for us. It was wonderful and so delicious once again!

***Sunday- Pictures, Church and Going Home!

Tried very hard to get a decent picture of the whole family before church... did not have very much success. It is really hard with 2 little boys! Went to church with the Graham's in Roseburg (Jackson loves going to their primary because Grandma Sue is their music leader!), came home and had a delicious dinner of Thanksgiving leftovers and then packed up and headed home!

Playing the piano before church

Our attempts at a family picture... impossible to get both to look and smile at the same time! (Hopefully some photoshop magic will do the trick so we can send out some Christmas cards this year

I sure love these two!!

One last try... it was just not going to happen!

It was a great weekend!! Can't wait to head back down to Glide for Christmas in just a few weeks, especially because we found out that NICK AND CHRISTI and their CUTE CUTE GIRLS are coming this year!!!!!! It is going to be SO SO SO SO much fun and we are so excited!! Hope everyone else had a wonderful Thanksgiving!!

Rocket Ship Cake

2010-11-22T17:38:00.000-08:00

When asked what kind of birthday cake Jackson wanted, he responded with, "A rocket ship cake!" So, not being all that experienced in making cute cakes, I turned to my good friend, Kim Janeway, to help me out! Though it took a few hours and a lot of, we'll say "learning experiences" with the fondant, this is what we came up with:

No, it definitely wasn't perfect and the real reason there are so many stars was to cover all the rips in the fondant from making it too thin. BUT, it was a ton of fun to make, we were pretty proud of the outcome, and most importantly, Jackson absolutely LOVED it!! After singing to him his only request was for the rocket ship on his piece of cake, though I got him to settle on the cool flames and part of the bottom of it since it would have been a ginormous piece had all the rocket been on it!

I also made some chocolate cupcakes (his cake was 3 layers of confetti cake) spent a long time frosting them dark blue and put some cut out fondant stars on top to match the cake! The kids mostly ate these.

We took him to Our of This World (indoor space themed playground) with a few friends and him and his buddies were running around like crazy having a blast! He talked about it for days afterwards!! I cannot even tell you how much fun he had! He kept saying, "Mom, Dad, you're the best! Thanks for my birthday!" We had a great time celebrating with him! He definitely deserved to have a great day!!

Singing to him

Blowing out the candles

He sure was a happy little 4 year old!!

Going down one of the slides on the playground... him and his buddy Jack had a lot of fun racing each other down!

Going down the blow-up slide... he was a little scared at first, but once he climbed up it and slid down it by himself once, we couldn't get him to stop!

It was a very very fun night!!

A BIG BIG thanks to Kim for helping with the cake!! You are awesome!! It was so fun to learn how to do fondant!!

Jackson Turns 4!!

2010-11-19T10:48:00.000-08:00

My Jackson Jeffrey is now officially 4! How on earth do I have a 4 year old already?? Crazy, but exciting! I have really enjoyed watching him grow up and discover new things about himself and his world around him in the past 4 years.

Let's start at the beginning though. Jackson sure gave us a run for our money in the beginning:

A 52 hour constant labor
Many sleepless nights with a screaming gassy baby in the first few weeks
A grumpy infant who would go up to 10 days without pooping
A super sensitive baby who was a horrible eater and hated solids
Many stubborn battles for control and independency at way too young an age
A super emotional toddler who easily broke down in tears when put in the spotlight or when he fell down or got his feelings hurt
Etc., etc, etc.

BUT, 4 years and many battles and sleepless nights combined also with many many fun and tender moments, Jackson has sure turned into a good little boy who is so super sweet, smart and caring, which makes those difficult first few years worth every second!!

I LOVE THIS KID!!

We went to Red Robin last night so they could sing to him! He loved the balloons they put on his ears and he especially liked the ice cream they gave him for his birthday! And, the Red Robin bird was there and he got to give him a High 5!

My newly 4 year old, Jackson Jeffrey Graham is:

**SMART! He absolutely loves doing preschool and I have really really enjoyed our one on one time learning together!! He is getting down his alphabet sounds and writing them down SO well! He asks everyday if it's a preschool day. And we have so much fun doing arts and crafts together during that time too!

**AN AMAZING SWIMMER AND SUPER COORDINATED! We have had him in swimming for almost 4 months now and the kid is amazing. Of course his super lean and tall body (he is still SO tall for his age!) and long narrow feet make a perfect combo for a good swimmer, but he also loves loves loves swim lessons and loves learning new things in the water! He can successfully jump in the pool, do a few arm strokes, tread water for 10 seconds and then turn onto his back and do wings and kicks back to the wall- and all that in a row completely on his own! It amazes me everytime! He is also really good at the backstroke! His teacher always has the other kids watch him as an example! He comes home so excited tell his Daddy all about swimming that day and practices the different strokes all around the house and in the bath!

Jackson also started soccer a few weeks ago and he loves it! The kid really is naturally coordinated (how could he not be with Graham/Baron family genes?) and picks up all sports super fast. He will go weeks and weeks without playing baseball and then one day pick up a bat and when you pitch it to him- not only does he hit it almost every time, but its usually a home run! I cannot wait until he is old enough to play on teams because I know he is going to shine and have SO much fun with it!

**A WONDERFUL BIG BROTHER! He has been so patient with Baron's new terrible 2 stage and is really good at sharing and forgiving his brother. He also always makes sure Baron is with us, doesn't run away and get lost and freaks out if he thinks we are going to leave Baron behind! I also absolutely love that they will spend hours giggling and wrestling and jumping on their beds together and flying all around being superheroes with their capes. It makes me SO happy to see how much they really love each other and how much fun they have together!

**MY LITTLE HELPER! I cannot make anything in the kitchen without Jackson running in with his stool saying, "I want to help you!" He loves to help with anything and everything. And if you ask him to get something for you or clean something up, he is really good about just saying, "ok," and getting right to it without complaints! He really has turned into such a good little boy!

**A PRIMARY & FHE LOVER! Jackson loves primary! He loves learning the new songs and talking about the gospel. He always asks to do family night and his favorite story is "when Heavenly Father and Jesus came and talked to Joseph Smith" as he says. His favorite primary songs by far are Book of Mormon Stories, Follow the Prophet and Scripture Power. He sings those throughout the house quite often. It always brings a smile to my face! He is getting really good at being reverent and listening in church too! I am SO proud of him!

These are just some of my favorite things about Action Jackson. He is so good and sweet and we feel very blessed and lucky to have him in our family! It makes staying up one night until midnight to make his requested rocket ship cake one night and then the next staying up until 1 am wrapping presents, frosting cupcakes and setting up his new train table (the table was all John's work), totally worth every second of lost sleep and tired and sore bodies.

WE LOVE YOU JACKSON!!!!!!!!!!!!

HAPPY 4TH BIRTHDAY!!!!!!!!!!

Halloween Fun!

2010-11-10T19:25:00.000-08:00

Since Halloween was almost 2 weeks ago, I think it's about time to post the costume pictures. The boys were really into Halloween this year which made it a ton of fun! Friday before Halloween we carved our pumpkins and Saturday we baked sugar cookies all day, went trick-or-treating to the homes of families in our ward and then watched the Ducks kick some USC butt with some good friends while the kids frosted cookies and played! At half time we put some dry ice and a glow stick in our pumpkins and turned out the lights to watch the glowing smoke come out of our pumpkins.... Jackson thought it was so cool and Baron was scared to death! It was a VERY fun night!

Baron went right in for the guts....

But was not a fan

Jackson sure thought they were fun though!

Jackson and his good buddy, Brayden. Jackson was a Dr. because he has been really into playing Dr. lately and when we saw the costume at Target he was in love with it!

They had a lot of fun trick or treating!

Baby Bear was our little superman

Can I just say how much I LOVE the Fall in Oregon?? The trees and leaves are amazing. So pretty and fun!

Hope everyone had a great Halloween! Can't wait for next year!!

Pumpkin Patch 2010

2010-10-26T21:41:00.000-07:00

A few weeks ago, we were really lucky and got a beautiful weekend in October without any rain! So we headed on over with our good friend's The Janeways over to Sauvie Island only to discover that our favorite smaller, less crowded pumpkin patch at Sauvie Island Farms is closed this year. Luckily, there are pumpkin patches ALL over Oregon, so we headed 5 mins (though longer with traffic) the other direction on the island to the more crowded and much bigger pumpkin patch. It was still pretty fun though and the boys loved it and had a blast together! We even got some good family pictures, which never happens! Seriously, we have like 1 good picture of all 4 of us in the past 2 years. It was a very fun day!

A Photo to Brighten Your Day

2010-09-30T21:49:00.000-07:00

Enjoying some late summer revelries!

Goodbye Summer.... Sigh

2010-09-16T23:00:00.000-07:00

Can I just say how sad I am to see the summer already ending?? Since I grew up in Southern California, I love 75-90 degree weather and am most comfortable in capri's, a t-shirt and rainbow sandals. It is really hard for me every Fall to get my rain coat back out now that I live in Oregon. It is especially hard this year since we had such a long crazy winter and summer was pretty much all of one month. With rain in the forecast for the next 10 days though, it's looking like summer really is coming to an end. (Insert long sigh) Though I have to say I really do like how gorgeous and fun the Fall is here in Oregon with all the leaves (seriously there are so many!) and all the pumpkin patches. Plus Halloween is coming up and those who know me know I LOVE Halloween!

Anyways, in honor of the summer season I thought I would post some pictures of the fun time we had this summer (and also get a chance to post those ones I just never got around to!). Although it was a pretty busy and stressful summer with John and I both working so many hours as well as job searching for John (and boy is that time consuming and STRESSFUL!!), we did manage to get some fun in there. A few camping trips, birthdays, 4th of July fireworks, weekends in Glide, lots of swimming and playing in the water fountains and a trip to the coast are just a few of the fun things we got to do! Here are some pictures of some of our best memories over the summer:

Camping!!

Lots of time spent running through different water fountains around the city

Lazy Mornings

Delicious Boysenberry Cobblers

Going shirt free during those super hot days

Eating delicious watermelon all summer long outdoors

Popsicles that make your tongue turn colors

And the Oregon Coast

Blog Fixed!

2010-08-26T22:36:00.000-07:00

I think we figured out the problems and updated to the newer blogger editing and changed the font settings. Check out the previous post and PLEASE comment and let me know if it is working now and not showing up in webdings anymore. It should all work now though!