Swim lessons

I love these pictures I got while he was in the pool, it sure captured some of the funny facial expressions he gives.


We've been taking "swim lessons" OK, the mom tot class, and he has LOVED it. It gets me outside everyday so I won't complain about the tan. He spends most of the class sticking his head underwater and climbing out of the pool. He was the only kid under the age of 2 who mastered getting out of the pool. I feel bad because his stomach gets so cut up on the cement but he just loves climbing out. We took the class with my friend, Lindsey, and her son, Davis.The bike rides got a little hot and the boys annoyed each other almost the whole way. We'd stop by the cannon center for lunch right after and load up on cookies to make it the rest of the way back. The best part was the 3 hour naps he took when we get home. Now, I teach a few boys in the ward swim lessons and he has to just sit and watch. Basically, he's not too happy about that. The mom, Sis. St. Clair, is so sweet to chase him around and try and entertain him. She commented to me that suckers seem to be the only way to get him to sit still! AMEN!

I also met my new idol at swim lessons.

When I first passed this lady, I thought for sure she was babysitting, then I learned, no, they really were all her 6 kids, and they all were under the age of 6, AND, they all rode bikes. I felt bad asking to take her picture while they all were riding,

so I just got the bikes in. No need to lock them to the rack, just all together prevents someone from stealing! In case you can't tell, there are 5 little bikes AND a seat, and she rides too! She took the mom-tot class with the 2 youngest, and the rest were in different classes. It sure seemed like a lot of work for one 25-minute class, but I soon stopped complaining about the effort of only having one!

CAMPING!

Ever since before we were married, James has tried to convince me to buy a tent. It took 2 years and I finally caved in. He's been so excited he even set the tent up in the front room!

Well, we finally braved the elements (aka Jackson) and tried to go camping. We only went back in American Fork canyon, but the weather was perfect. We stayed in the Timpanookee campground and really did have a lot of fun. We did decide that one-night camping is perfect for the one year old little boy who isn't walking yet. He crawled all through the dirt, ate the rocks, and of course, annoyed the fellow campers with his shrieking!

We spent the next day hiking around Cascade Springs. We tried to get someone to take a picture of all of us, but she held the camera upside down so it didn't quite work. But, I fell in love with Cascade springs! You walk in the middle of all the little falls on boardwalks. Jackson loved all the birds and everything was so green! I loved it!

This picture cracks me up just cause you can see how Jackson always sticks out his chin so his bottom teeth stick out. James is always worried he's going to need braces already.

Baby contest

We entered Jackson into the Freedom Festival's baby contest. I'll be honest, I really just wanted to win some of the great door prizes, and you got Stadium of Fire tickets if your baby won. Well, it was so wierd... parents took it WAY too seriously, and most kids were just crying. Jackson was VERY cranky in line and I gave him suckers to try and calm him down. But then he wanted to "crawl" around so of course the dirt stuck everywhere the sucker juice was. Basically, by the time we got to the table, he was so dirty and his face was bright red from crying, and James and I had both about had it. These were the only pictures we managed to take, and no, we did not win. But, I will probably try again next year in hopes of the prizes!

A new generation of babysitters

I've now left Jackson a couple of times with a new babysitter, Grace. She's the bishop's daughter of our ward and passed us out a magnet with her number. I always leave her with my cell phone in case she needs to call me. I was going through my old text messages this morning when I found a few I didn't recognize.....

Grace: "He is so cute mom! He's like chase and race (her older brothers) put together into one cute little package"

Grace's Mom: "I agree! Jackson is so cute. I like how carefully you take care of him. Love, mom"

Grace: "We just came in and are very tired. Should we put on a baby show to calm down too?"

Grace's Mom: "Make sure he is dry. Offer a snack and water, wipe his hands, read a book and rock. If he is tired put him in his crib with a kiss."

Grace: "Mom we just watched the show and now he is a little bit sleepy"

I sure had a good time laughing at those! Maybe I should be a concerned...but now that I know HER mom is so involved too.... maybe I won't!

And I wondered why baby-wise wasn't working

It hit me while going through all the pictures from these past few weeks that we really haven't planned around Jackson's schedule at all. Poor guy, he's just been worn out!

And the winner is....

MAN CRUSH.
Ha, what a team name! James’ softball team took first in the intramural championships with James as pitcher. Even though the last game was FREEZING… I actually made it to most of the games and saw these boys get extremely competitive! But hey, they finally got the coveted championship t-shirt. As the back says, “Those who say ‘it’s just a shirt’, don’t get it!" I did actually enjoy softball season though and I'm glad I have such an active husband! (who if you can't tell, sure has lost some weight lately!)

Who's a big boy now?

Jackson is now 1! We wore him out at Seven Peaks water park on his birthday. His favorite was the lazy river. I thought it would be a nice relaxing time, but he spent most the time leaning over the tube, sticking his face in the water, and blowing bubbles. He’d die laughing anytime we went under the little waterfalls, and loved the little kids pool. James and I both commented it was the happiest day he’s ever had…meaning, we had never seen him so happy for such a long time. The “big boys” of course had to do the water slides, but I was content with the wave pool. We barely even made it out of the parking lot that night before Jackson was out. We finished off the day trying out our new camping stove at the park and having pudding cake.

What does being 1 mean?

> it means turning the car seat around but now, driving is even more miserable! His shrieking is right there by our ears, he can throw toys at us easier, and seems to drop things on purpose, just so we’ll pick them up!
> it means smarter but now, he’s managed to escape his high chair twice this week! Once he just started laughing when he hit the ground, and the second, a drawer was open and he cut his mouth up pretty bad. I was a little worried about all the blood and swelling, but one more otter pop later and he was a happy boy!
>It means he now LOVES to pull himself up on anything! But seeing as he can’t even take one step by himself, he takes of charging and has lots of bumps on his head. Not even counting the high chair incident, we’ve had 2 other big falls this past week.
>It means a LOT more talking! He says “dada” all the time, “hi”, and since Matt was here “Maaa”. He really is such a vocal, social little boy! The doctor said he’s a little behind on his motor skills (normal crawling, walking, etc) but he was way off the charts on his social and fine motor skills (picking things up, turning pages, eating, etc).
> It means diaper changing is ridiculous. Not only does it reek, but he screams anytime you try to pin him down. The bishops’s daughter just babysat, and when I asked her how it went she said “Wow, he’s very….energetic”. I asked if she had to change his diaper and she said, she tried, but couldn’t even get him down long enough so she gave up..guess it’s not just me!
> It means he gets cuter and cuter every day! We love our little boy!!

What do you call a stinky bird?

Puberty! :)

Matt is now 15! The big teenager enjoyed a BBQ at JaNae’s followed by some good playstation football. We sure loved spending so much time with Matt. Not only did he update our I-pod with the “cool songs”, show us all the new funny videos on You Tube, and help us learn the new phrases ( “Oh snap”…”poop toot”… “So” (which is short for sure)… “rockin’ fire” and “you’re a beast”) But he really was just a lot of fun and mot afraid to help out. We already miss him! He taught Jackson how to hit his head over and over by just hearing the word “ouch”, called him “Jacksy boi” (in his Arnold voice) which got him laughing every single time, and he even put him to sleep some nights to give me a break! We got to help teach him to drive in the parking lots, take him shopping for "cool" shirts, and basically, enjoyed every minute of him! Normally, we only get to talk to him on the phone, and let's just put it nicely...he's not a phone talker. He puts on this weird voice and just grunts. So, we actually got to get to know him and realize he is really growing up. As he should be since he starts westwood next year! What a great guy!

Utah Lake Festival

We first went to this the week before Jackson was born and loved the free hot dogs and sunshine. We went again this year, and somehow, those hot dogs did not seem the same as when I wasn’t pregnant! But I did love the free shirts, getting some sun, and seeing all the people so in love with Utah lake. I don’t think the boys liked it as much as I did because they were ready to go before we even got our free boat ride!

The RV'ers

Brad and Julie brought Matt up on “The Pheonix Cruiser” and luckily (for us) it broke down for a few days so we got Matt for extra time! Jackson LOVES matt. We got to spend a week and half just having fun. Of course, we HAD to go bowling before they took off. One of the first dates James and I went on, even before his mission, was bowling with Brad and Julie so it always brings back good memories. I don’t know if it’s the wedgie or the actual game, but we always have a good time. Brad has even helped us realize that James is good enough on the basketball game to get LOTS of tickets. He can then trade all the tickets in to get a free game of bowling. So basically, if we spend a dollar at the first, James gets enough tickets and we save on bowling!

Jackson’s first oreo.

Could a boy be any happier?

5 Star Ranch

We spent Memorial Day weekend at the Matthew’s family reunion and man, did we have fun! The weather was a little cold, but we enjoyed one day of sunshine full of canoeing, sitting outside, and of course, eating. We even got to see Shaela and Jared and Brad and Julie even brought up Matt! I still need to get copies of the good pictures. We had a fun ugly fashion show and a memory night to celebrate my grandparents 50th wedding anniversary!

And let's not forget to mention what a sport James is! He handles the differences in our two families SOOOOOOO good! :)

What's wrong with this picture?

Seriously?? It’s the end of may!! And yes, those are broken tree branches you see…