End of Preschool...

Jaxon finished up his first year of preschool a few weeks ago.  I have been so impressed with the preschool and his teachers.  He learned a lot and made some great friends.  The first thing they would do every day when they went into their classroom was a drawing of whatever they wanted.  His teachers would write down what each picture was.  On his last day, we got the book with all his drawings, and I had so much fun looking back at his artwork throughout the year.  Some of my favorite things he said to describe his pictures were:  "It's a lobby, it's what you put buildings on", "It's our neighbors body" ( I couldn't tell from the drawing who it was, but it cracked me up) and "This is a not to do naughty stuff sign".

Jaxon looking so grown up in his school picture-I love how dark his eyes are!

He told me his favorite things from the year were when the fire engine came to visit his preschool and when they got to go on miniature horse rides.

For their graduation, they had a party at Classic Skating.  I don't think I've been there since high school--they still do the snowball and play the same music.  Not that I'm complaining, I love 80's music.  Jeff was at work so it was just me and the kids.  We attempted roller skating but it was harder than I thought trying to keep the kids and myself upright.  We had fun trying anyway. The kids spent most of their time jumping in the bounce houses and playing in the Jungle playland.

Jaxon with one of his teachers Ms. Cameon.  He is sure going to miss his teachers and all his friends, but he gets to go back for another year and is already asking me how long until preschool starts again.    

Soccer Season!!

We let Jaxon pick between playing soccer and tee ball this spring.  He chose soccer and is playing on a team with the boys in his primary class.    

He was so excited when he got his uniform he wanted to wear it all day.  Notice that it's on backwards--that was so he could see his number!  

Sometimes I think he stays in the back so he doesn't have to kick the ball. He gets distracted at times and we have to remind him to watch the ball, but he is doing better each game. They look so cute in their uniforms chasing the ball.  I love it!

    

Jaxon's favorite parts about playing soccer--getting a treat at the end of the game and doing a cheer for the other team.

What a life.. (part 2)

Since I was using my parent's camera, I don't have the rest of our Arizona pictures but will add them in later. On Saturday, I convinced my parents to go to the Pima County Fair.  It was a perfect day with 70ish degree weather. Jaxon and Claire loved the little kid rides and the petting zoo. It was one of the best petting zoos I've been too--they just let you into this gated area with llamas, goats, pigs, and sheep just walking around. Of course it smells like crazy and you feel like you have to wash your hands about ten times after, but the kids enjoyed it. We ate lunch from a yummy BBQ grill.

Besides all the rides and shows, the fair also had a demolition derby. It was a first for my parent's and the highlight of the fair for all of us. Why is it so funny to see cars crashing into each other? The blue Chrysler Imperial was the favorite, but it started on fire at the end and lost.

The kids ready for a swim-well one of them at least!
We also went to Pump it Up. They have two rooms full of bounce houses. One of the bounce houses had an obstacle course that Claire and Jaxon wanted to keep going through. I was exhausted by the end and it made me wish I had just a portion of the energy my kids have.  

On Tuesday we went to Funtastics which is like a Boondocks. They had go-carts, bumper boats, mini golf, and kid rides. I'm sure the workers thought my mom and I had a little too much to drink. We started laughing at something while we were mini golfing and then everything after that was funny. When we bought the tickets, they told us we had 4 tokens each to use in the arcade. So after we were done with all the rides and went to use our tokens, we realized they had given us each 13 dollars to use on arcades. We played a lot of skee ball and the kids found their favorite games. I found a game that you drop a ball into a number of circles each with a number on it and you got that many tickets. Fast forward an hour--we ended up with 750 tickets. We let the kids pick out a bunch of junk that I'll try and get rid of without them noticing. My dad got a water rocket which he told us he has wanted since he was 6 years old. That information would have made birthdays a lot easier all these years!  

We ended the trip with Old Tuscon.  The kids got plenty of rides on the train and the cars.  They had a great time.  After Old Tuscon, we headed to the airport for our flight.  It was a bumpy flight and I've never been more happy to be on the ground.  Something I was not happy about coming home too--snow!!

We had a wonderful vacation and a great time with my parents!!

What a life...

What a life...a term used frequently by grandparents, kids, and myself over the last week.

I've been wanting to visit my parents in Arizona and when Jeff decided to go to Boston with his Dad, I thought it would be the perfect weekend for me and the kids to come. We are having a great time. The first day that we flew in we went to the Butterfly Gardens. It's sort of like a greenhouse and there were hundreds of butterflies. Jaxon loved holding them and told us after that he made lots of new friends, meaning the butterflies.

On Wednesday, the kids wanted to go to the Children's Museum. Highlights were:

The fire engine:
the vet shop:

the store/kitchen:

building towers and knocking them down:

going down the stairs headfirst (this was the last room they played in and instead of being tired like I thought they might be, they were SO hyper and were laughing their heads off):
Thursday we went on a tram ride through Sabino Canyon. It was a chilly 50 degrees and we tried to stay warm. I loved it anyway-it was beautiful. The kids loved all the waterfalls and the cactus. It was one of my favorite things that we have done so far.

After the canyon tour, Grandma gave the kids a surprise. When we asked Claire what she thought about her sucker, she said, "ouch!"


On Friday, we went to a reptile rambile. It was another chilly day and we cuddled in blankets. They brought out a variety of snakes. We left before they brought out the creepy crawlies which got me thinking, would you rather come across a snake in the desert or a tarantula? Definitely a snake for me--tarantulas make my skin crawl just thinking about them.
I'm trying to be less scared of bugs and such for my kids (after all I need someone to kill the spiders so I don't have too). Jaxon was fine touching the snakes after he saw me doing it--success!!

The cooler weather didn't stop us from enjoying the pool every night. Jaxon is getting more and more brave. By the third night, he was going around the pool by himself with his lifejacket and noodle. His smile was priceless...

The kids sleeping soundly after a hard day of play:

Easter Festivities!

I look forward to Easter weekend almost as much as the kids do. It's such a fun holiday, spring is in the air, and who doesn't love a creme filled Cadbury Egg. Even better that it was conference. My parents flew up to spend the weekend with everyone. Only wish they could've brought some of their warm weather with them. We had a wonderful time with them and love when they come visit.

At Jaxon's preschool on Monday, the eggs they've been watching over the last few weeks hatched. They were able to see two of them hatch in their class. His teacher had an open house between conference sessions on Saturday to let families come and see the chicks and the Easter Bunny. We went and checked them out-they were too little to hold, but still so cute.

We couldn't talk Claire into sitting on the Easter Bunny's lap. Maybe next year...

After the visit to Jaxon's preschool, my family came to our house for lunch and an Easter egg hunt. The kids ended up with loads of candy.

Jaxon and Claire enjoying being with their Grandma and eating their candy.

After the egg hunt, we took a little break to let the sugar high wear off and met at my sister's house while the men went to the Priesthood session. We ate dinner and dyed Easter Eggs. The boys couldn't resist putting their whole hands in the dye and ended up with green fingers. I don't remember coloring eggs being so messy, but then I've never dyed eggs with eight kids before. I love how much fun the cousins have when they are together-they all get along so well!

On Sunday, the Easter Bunny came again. He brought more candy, some toys for outside, and Mario for the WII. Jeff and I have been looking forward to playing Mario with the kids. We find games like that highly entertaining.

Jaxon looking a little stunned at all the candy in his basket. Wish I could read his mind...

Catching up!

I haven't been the best at blogging this month, but I wanted to remember something from March so here goes. We have been able to spend many days at the park and in our backyard which has been so nice. I can't even begin to say how happy I am that spring is finally here. There is so much to love about spring. I love seeing people outside, I love seeing tulips starting to come up even if they aren't in my yard, I love breaking out the flip flops and I love feeling motivated to spring clean my house. One of the things we did this month was clean our windows. Jeff found a great website with all sorts of tips to make things easier. Apparently, if you clean your window with newspaper, you can get it much cleaner than with paper towels or rags or whatever you use. I was a little skeptical until I saw the results. You still use window cleaner and go in a circular motion with crinkled-up newspaper. Maybe this is how everyone cleans their windows, but it was news to me. Here is the before and after picture from our family room window.

Before: I'll admit that cleaning windows and blinds are something I don't do near as often as I should. It's amazing we could even see out of it.

After: It was so clean I kept thinking the window was open.

We also took a St. George cousin trip with my sister and sister-in-law and all the kids. It was actually the end of February but I'll count it since I've wanted to blog about it. Everyone had a great time. I didn't see Jaxon much because he was so busy playing with his cousins. We did lots of outside activities since it was warm enough. It made me excited for our turn to have nice spring weather.

We tried to trap a leprechaun on St. Patrick's Day, but he got away. He did manage to leave some cute green shirts and treats for the kids. Jaxon and Claire thought it was pretty cool. Jax kept asking me how he knew that Tootsie Rolls were his favorite. It was a pretty smart little leprechaun (really...a little man comes in your house while you're asleep and leaves you candy...how creepy). Just glad Jaxon doesn't see the creepiness of it all. We had green pancakes for breakfast and corned beef and cabbage for dinner.

Jeff had his baseball fantasy draft which is his favorite day of the year. He is happy with the team he got. While he was at his draft, I went to the NCAA Regional Game. My parents bought tickets last year and it was fun to see an Elite Eight game. The underdog won which made it even better.

We went to the Discovery Gateway museum with friends:

Jaxon and Claire making delicious looking turkey sandwiches.

As long as Claire had a doll, she was happy.

Jaxon and Kaleb working on the construction site. This is one of Jaxon's favorite things to do at the museum.

The kids have been healthy, the weather is getting warmer, Jeff's almost done with another semester, and we have fun trips to look forward to in April...life is good!

Your package has arrived!

The other day I found the kids pretending that Toby was a package needing to be delivered. They put him in a box and somehow his head ended up coming through the box. Me being the mature mom that I am, could not stop laughing and took pictures when I should have been helping him out of the box. I think that almost everyone who comes over to our house ends up saying sometime before they leave, "poor Toby". He puts up with a lot, but takes it so well. Another Toby story that made me and Jeff laugh pretty good--Claire was holding Toby and he got a little nippy with her. She grabbed his face and said "no bite Toby." Then she stood up and carried him to the laundry room all red-faced. She was so mad and the whole way to the laundry room she was telling him "timeout, three minutes. " She does it a couple times a day now when she thinks he's being bad.

I am liking Toby more now than the last time I posted about him. He continues to follow me around which doesn't bother me until I trip on him. We are much closer to having him house trained and with the nice weather (mostly nice weather I should say since it is snowing outside as I am typing this), he plays outside most of the day. He really is a sweet dog who loves the kids. Whenever Jaxon or Claire gets sad, Toby will lick their faces/tears and give them kisses to make them happy.

Overwhelmed!

On Sunday, I was called to be the 2nd counselor in our Young Women's Presidency. It came as a huge surprise and I can't help but feel overwhelmed. I've never been in Young Women's before, but I have nothing but great memories of my own experience in YW's. We had our first activity on Tuesday and it eased a lot of my fears. The girls are amazing and have been really open about the change. I'm looking forward to getting to know all of the girls. I have heard from so many people in the ward how amazing our youth are. I am also really excited to be working with the other ladies in the presidency. We are all at similar points in our life and it will be fun to become better friends with each of them. They will be great to work with. I have to say how thankful I am for the interent--sugardoodle has been my best friend this past week.

I'm going to miss teaching with Jeff--that has been my favorite calling so far. We had such a great class and it was fun to be together during class and sharing time. I will miss hearing the cute things the kids say and laughing at the funny things the kids do. (ok so maybe I laughed a little too much sometimes and I'm sure the primary will not miss me being irreverent!) The one bright side about leaving primary is that I will get all the girls who were in my class in beehives this year.

I will keep you posted on how it's going. Please share any great ideas you have...I'll need them!!

Book Blog

I am grateful to my dad for instilling in me a love for reading. He always encouraged me to read and made sure that I had the next book in whatever series I was reading. I love being taken away into a different world created by the author. It is also something that Jeff and I share. A vacation is not a vacation for us without a good book to read.

I've always wanted to keep track of the books I've read, but have never found a good system. I'm going to see how it works with doing a post after I have finished a book. I'm always looking for new books to read so let me know if you have any recommendations.

The last books that I read were Freakonomics and The Giver.

Freakonomics is the first non-fiction book I've read in a long time. I'm trying to add more non-fiction to my reading and this was a good one to start with. It talks about different studies and stats and correlations they can make with those stats. The most important thing that I took away from the book is to be a less stressed parent. I worry about things that really are not worth worrying about. There was a whole section on how names affect our kids which was really interesting. I enjoyed the book and felt like it gave me a new perspective on life.

The Giver is a book I've always wanted to read. It's a young adult fiction which tend to be some of my favorites. It talks about a town with no diversity, no choices, and no real feelings. Everyone in the town has a specific role. They only know life one way. One boy is given an assignment that changes his life and the way he sees everything. This book is a great read especially if you are looking for something quick. It made me grateful that we are able to experience happiness and freedom. I really enjoyed reading it and would recommend it to anyone who hasn't read it.

Jaxon's 4th Birthday!

We celebrated Jaxon's birthday on February 12th. How I love love my little boy who I probably shouldn't be calling little anymore. He might be one of the few kids who was a little apprehensive about his birthday. He wanted to stay 3 because he always wants to be a kid. He is always asking me if he has to grow up and I don't have the heart to tell him that he will because I know the day will come too soon when he will be grown up. It makes me happy that he enjoys being a kid as much as he does. That's what childhood is all about. He keeps me company in the day and I love that we can have real conversations. He is a huge help, mainly in the kitchen. I'm hoping he will be a good cook with all the things he already knows about cooking.

This last year was a big year for him. He started preschool and has done so well. He loves his teachers and has made some good friends. He also started sunbeams. He knew his teacher before which made it that much easier. He really enjoys her as well and is always telling me stories and things that he has learned. I think Jaxon would say the highlight of the year would be getting a dog for Christmas. Toby has made one happy boy even happier.

We had a few different parties and celebrations throughout the week. My mom was able to come up the week of his birthday. They have always had a special relationship and it made Jaxon's week to have her here. We had a party for both of the kids at Jungle Jim's Playland. Both of our families and some of our close friends were invited.

Jaxon talked me into going on the ride below, but all the dizziness was worth hearing him laugh and think it was the coolest thing that we were all on the ride together.

The kids loved hitting the pinata:
At first, Jaxon really wanted the carrot cake again, but he changed his mind when he saw the football cake. His cake choices make me laugh, but at least it's always what he wants.

Here are the boys waiting in line for the bumper cars:

We are so grateful to all of our families and friends who came and supported the kids. They have so many people who love and care for them.

Jaxon kept asking me if he could have a sleepover with his Grandma and his cousins. So, Jeff and I took Claire and stayed at his parent's house for the night. His other cousins all had school so it was just him and McKay. They went to the Training Table, played hide-n-go seek, and watched a show. He had so much fun and has asked if he can do it when my mom comes up again. We may just have to make it a tradition.

Here is Jaxon on his actual birthday opening his presents:

We try to let the kids pick where they want to eat for their birthday and like last year, Jaxon picked the Mayan. Jeff's parent's came with us and we had a great time. We love Jaxon and are so lucky he's a part of our family!!

Craft Day

Back in October, my sister-in-law asked if I wanted to be in a craft group. There are 13 people in the group and everyone makes a 3-5 dollar craft. You meet together and exchange the crafts. I wasn't going to do it since I don't consider myself to be very crafty. I figured I would be trying to come up with something the week before and would be stressed out about it. But on a whim I decided to do it-I figured I would at least get another 12 crafts that would make it worth it. The date for the exchange was February so I had a good 4 months to come up with an idea and complete it. I started searching the internet for inexpensive craft ideas and realized how many great ideas there are. I tried two different crafts before finding the one I wanted to make. There were many other ideas that I want to go back and make some time soon. I finally decided on making some XO frames for Valentine's Day. The hardest part about my craft was finding frames. I had to get them at the dollar store, but each dollar store only had one or two frames. This meant a lot of trips around town, but once I had the frames they went fairly quickly. The only other things I needed were marble beads, scrap paper, and E6000 glue. Here are some pictures of the complete project. In true Amy fashion, I was finishing up the night before the exchange, but I got them done and I was happy with the result. I found the idea at tatertotsandjello.blogspot.com.

It was so much fun exchanging them and I was so glad I decided to be a part of it. One of the ladies said it's like Christmas morning. I came away with homemade vanilla, JOY letters, a cake plate, an America and a Love banner, four different V-day decorations, a pancake bowl w/kitchen towel, cookie holders, and hair accessories. The best part was coming home and decorating my house with new V-day decorations! I am looking forward to doing it again next year!