Another year gone by...Happy Anniversary!

I can't believe another year has gone by.  I am so lucky and so blessed to have Mike as my spouse.

To celebrate we did something a little different.  We went to Leo's and ordered our pizza.  While waiting, we played a game of laser tag.  It was only the two of us.  We paid for 10 minutes (which was super cheap...this would be a fun group date).  They let us play for longer since no one else was waiting.  We were so tired and worn out by the end. 

Well, we ate our pizza.  By the time we finished we had only been there for an hour.  We looked at each other and said, "Now what?!?"  We thought for some reason that Leo's would take longer.  We weren't planning on seeing a movie but thought we'd go look.

The movies we were interested in were playing at odd times.  Either we had missed the show, wasn't interested, or the movie was so long we would have gotten out late.  With our kids being so young we thought that it would be better to not be out all night.


We decided to rent a movie and get some treats.  We watched the movie kids free at our home.  To be honest, it was nice.  I didn't have to pause the tv a million times, change bums, get someone something to eat, deal with crying, etc.  I was able to actually sit back and relax...and enjoy the movie with my sweetheart.

Next year, we have planned to actually go somewhere.  Quinn and Paxton will both be old enough to leave.  I'm excited for my night get-away.

Overall, it was a good anniversary and am glad we were able to do something to celebrate.

My man's birthday

It's hard to come up with plans for Mike's birthday since it's so close to our anniversary. We thought we had it figured out. Then, we thought about it...and realized we don't have anything for our anniversary. We kept switching what we'll do on what day. Mike actually didn't want anything done for his birthday. I thought with it being so close to Christmas, our anniversary, and New Year's (Eve)that it does often get forgotten. I don't want that. I think he's used to it. It bothers me though.

I asked what he wanted.  He decided to spend the evening with friends.  He just wanted to hang out and watch a movie.  We ended up watching the second Lord of the Rings.  The other alternative was The new Batman show.

Here's the handsome fellow with his cake.  I made a strawberry shortcake.  I thought that since we were limited on strawberries, I'd make a cake with the strawberries already on it.

Quinn enjoying his cake.

Paxton with Elora.

Quinn and Paxton with Elora.

Christmas

Christmas was so much fun this year. I don't know who was more excited; me or Quinn. I admit I had a hard time going to sleep starting two nights before Christmas.  I knew what Quinn was getting and was so excited for him to have it.  He's been asking for a long time and finally the time has come that he can have it.  Honestly, I felt bad that he had to wait so long.  There were times I wanted to give his present to him early but I knew that would ruin Christmas.

Everytime someone would ask Quinn what he was getting he would quickly respond "trains."  He knew.  He didn't understand what was taking so long.  I tried to the Christmas ring countdown but that just got him more anxious.

We had a nice Christmas with family.  Christmas Eve was dedicated to Mike's family.  They have more of their family traditions Christmas Eve as opposed to Christmas Day. 

This year was a little different.  We had our famous Christmas dinner made by Karen and others.  We visited and all of a sudden we had a special visitor.  Yep, It's Santa, It's Santa. 

Greg played Santa.  Geoffrey looked out the window and his immediate response was "Daddy."  There's no fooling that guy. 

Quinn was so excited but hesitant to sit on Santa's lap.  We had explained to Quinn about Santa.  He didn't want to chance not asking Santa for trains in fear of not getting any.  With the help of his dad he was able to sit on Santa's lap.

Christmas Day was so awesome.  I was the first one awake.  I'm so glad that Quinn got up minutes after.  Then we woke Dad and Paxton naturally woke with the commotion. 

 

I yelled to Quinn, "Santa came, Santa came! Let's go see what he brought."  Quinn said, "Train" and ran into the living room.  He was bummed when I told him he had to wait for Dad.  Quinn went and literally pounced on him.  Good thing because that got him moving.  

 

Quinn was so cute.  Every present he opened he hollared, "Choo, Choo."  He loved Christmas.

 

Let's go back to why I couldn't wait for Christmas.  Everything was about trains with Quinn.  He wanted one so bad and that is the only thing he ever thought about.  He wouldn't do something unless I involved  a train somehow.  For example, I'd ask Quinn to eat his sandwich.  He'd say no.  Then I'd say not even a train sandwich.  Then he'd proceed to eat. 

 

In the middle of the night he dreams about trains.  He has to...ise sleep talk is about trains.  He yells for trains.  If he can't find them he won't go back to sleep until he does.  Sometimes, those nights were so long.  I'd search for anything to replace his trains but nothing would do.  His trains were bath toys or things he turned into trains...not actual trains.  That's why I felt so bad making him wait for his present.  I first bought it in October.  That is a long time to wait.

 

As a reward, I would take Quinn to Barnes and Noble to play with the train table they have in the kids department.  He could stay there all day.  I would bring a book and just watch him.  I didn't really mind.  It was kind of relaxing..until another little kid would come.  Then it was a brawl match.  Quinn got pretty good at sharing (with some coaxing).  That's good for him especially since we were dealing with trains.

 

When we go the library, Quinn is like a hound.  He can sniff out those train books.  Every book was about trains or had a train in it.  i don't know how he did it.  The librians found him so cute that they helped him.  He fell in love right there.  Someone helping him with his quest to find trains...he'll take it.

 

There are hundreds of things like this.  Yes, Quinn is my little obsessed one.  I love it.  It's him.  Trains will always hold a special place in my heart.

 

Now onto Paxton...Paxton was sick during Christmas and had a hard time sleeping at night.  When we went over to Gene and Karen's Christmas Eve, he fell asleep in the car.  I had tried all day to put him down and he wouldn't.  I was so excited and relieved for him to be sleeping that I didn't dare take him inside for all of the noise.  I stayed in the car and relaxed.  We were there for 45 minutes.  It was nice though.  I was so exhausted myself.  I almost wish I had stayed home becuase I felt bad for dragging Paxton out with him being sick.  I didn't want to miss out on the fun.  We stayed too late and Paxton was grumpy on the way home. 

 

For that reason, we stayed home all morning to rest.  We went to my mom's that night.  We didn't stay long there.  We wanted to make an appearance.  Since we went later we had missed some of the family.  Oh well, we can't win them all.

 

I think next year will be better just in the sense that Paxton and Quinn will be older.  Naps schedules will be different.  Hopefully no one will be sick.  It's a hard time of year for that reason.

Family Pictures

This is my favorite!



This is my second favorite! I don't like how much we are leaning...especially Mike.

Halloween 2012

We had a Halloween party with the in-laws. I tried to Quinn to dress up but he wouldn't. I finally got him to be a dog.

He's a funny boy. Quinn absolutely loves trains. He cannot get enough of them. So, I assumed he would be more than glad to be a train for Halloween. I was wrong. He didn't want anything to do with it. He got frustrated wearing it because he couldn't see it. He asked for me to wear it. I put it on to indulge him. He couldn't have been happier. He loved it!!! He was able to see it and loved that his mom was a train.

I couldn't get a picture of Quinn in his dog costume. He claimed it was too hot. Everything nowadays are too hot. He's always stripping! Too bad...no picture...he was way cute.

This is the only picture I got of Quinn wearing Thomas.  He wanted to take it off all night.  He finally got into trick-or-treating when he realized he was getting candy.  At each house, he would "toot, toot" for the people.  He put on quite a show and was such a ham.  Daddy was so proud of his little boy.

Paxton tagged along too.  He didn't mind his rabbit outfit other than the hat.  Everyone thought he was a monster without it though.  It doesn't matter, he still was the cutest baby out there!

Pumpkin Patch 2012

The whole reason why we went to the pumpkin patch was for Quinn to ride the train.  As most of you know, Quinn is in LoVe with trains.  He will wake in the middle of the night wanting to know where his trains are.  He sleep talks about trains.  Everything is some sort of train with him.  The only way we can get him to eat anything is to tell him it's a train...like it's a train sandwich or a train cake.  He's even taken his watermelon rinds and made them into trains. 

Paxton was a trooper.  He just sat in the wagon while we enjoyed ourselves.  I'm pretty sure he enjoyed himself as well.  He loved the ride!

They had a candy machine full of corn or mill worms to feed the chickens.  They didn't have this last year.  Mike was very pleased to find this here. 

We showed Quinn the corn first; and he recognized it.  When he saw the mill worms he automatically assumed it was like the corn.  He put one in his mouth and immediately became repulsed by it.  I didn't see this happen but Mike says that it was super funny.

These three boys are my world.  I love this picture.  I don't have a lot of pictures where the three best people in my life are all together.

The Boys Together

This is one rare moment when Quinn isn't picking on Paxton.  Paxton takes it like a champ.  He learned quickly to cry when Quinn is around for Mom in fear of getting hurt.

I was showing off how good Paxton was balancing on the chair on his own.  Mike was afraid of Paxton falling off the chair so he took an old shirt and tied him to it.  i laughed really hard when I saw what he was doing.  Quinn decided he needed to be a part of the action so he hugged Paxton.  At first, it wasn't so nice.

The little rascal found Mike's foot powder and made a huge mess all over my bed.  I couldn't be too frustrated because I found it kind of funny.  It was easy to clean up.

 

I thought this picture was funny.  Paxton loves to have his foot up.  He hangs onto the cart.  When I try to straighten him he just puts himself back in this position.  I guess he finds it comfortable.

I absolutely love this picture.  It says a lot about their relationship.  Just look at their expressions.

More TrAiNs!

Quinn has been obsessed with trains. He has always liked them but within the last month everything has been about trains.

We went to a train show. It was actually Karen's idea to go. I had wanted to take Quinn but had forgotten about it. I'm so glad she called and reminded me.

She offered to stay home with Paxton so that Quinn and I could go and have a date together. I simply asked Quinn if he wanted to see some trains and he was so excited. He did everything that I had asked him to do because he knew if he listened and obeyed the sooner we could leave for the train show. (Only if he was always like that.)

I knew Quinn would be excited but I had no idea that he would THAT excited.  When we first arrived he saw a rideable train outside.  He wanted to touch it SO bad.  Mean Mom wouldn't let him.  No one was around and what IF something did happen...I didn't want to responsible for it.  I coaxed Quinn inside.

Immediately, he saw a tiny train that went around and would occasionally disappear into a tunnel.  I told him where to watch for it to come out.  He would run around and wait for it each time.  Since it was the first booth, Quinn didn't understand that there were A LOT more trains to see.  We were there for quite a while.  I figured this our date and if he's really enjoying himself why not let him stay for as long as he wanted?  We weren't really in any hurry.

Quinn found some fascinating and very interesting trains.  He would stand in between these two booths and wait for the trains to come around.  Each time he saw them it was like he was seeing them for the first time.  There was a time he would run around to keep up with the train.  Since he was so excited he was super speedy.  Often, he would have to stop to wait for the train to catch up to him instead.

We were at this booth for at least 1 1/2 hours.  The people in charge of this booth found him so entertaining and cute.  They laughed at his excitement.  They gave him some candy.  Then later he was given a train car they were trying to sell for $2.  Definitely, this day was a boy's dream.  I'm surprised I didn't get a picture with his train.  He won't let the thing out of his sight.  He loves it so much.

He played with this set for a long time as well. When other kids would come to play he'd knock them out of the way so he could have it to himself. That didn't last long because he learned quickly that behavior leads to not playing with the trains.

There was another booth where he could control the speed and direction of the trains.  He loved having full control of the track.  He thought it was funny to have all three trains crash into each other.  The owner didn't like it so much.

We ended the day perfectly...a ride on the BiG TrAiN. This is how I talked him into leaving. Then I had to distract him on the way to the car.

Total time at the train show: 3 hours. Wowsers!!!

Honestly, I'm so glad I was able to take Quinn to the train show. I had a smile on my face the whole time. I loved his excitement. I loved everything about the day. It will always be a day I will remember and cherish. Things like this make me love Quinn so much more. I learned so much about him too.

This is what our house looks like a lot of the time. I try to get him to play blocks in his room but he won't have it. So, everyday I pick up his "trains" and he pulls them back out the next day. It does keep him entertained and he loves them. He gets mad when his trains come apart. Sometimes, it's not a happy day. I bet you can guess what Quinn is getting for Christmas...and what his bribe is for going to the bathroom...

L. Tom Perry



We went to my sister's ward to be a part of them blessing their newest baby girl Camilla.  We had to sit in the gym since we were a little bit late.  Sitting in the gym is not an ideal place for those that have small children.  Quinn was running around.  I had to take Paxton out to change him and to feed him.  Quinn came with me and that helped a little.

Anyways, while I was in the hall with my two boys and Karalee had mentioned that it looked like L. Tom Perry was sitting on the stand.  (She was in the hall with me too.)  No one had mentioned he was there so we were trying to figure out if it was really him or not.  Someone got up and then declared they were glad an apostle was with us today...  Then we knew; it WAS L. Tom Perry.

He was there, I think, for a family reunion.  He had mentioned that he wanted to learn more about his ancestors and that it was his 90th birthday.

After sacrament meeting we got a picture with the whole ward.  He was in previous pictures and wanted to get an updated one.  He had to go back to SLC and that was why they did it after sacrament meeting instead of after church.

There was a line to meet him and we were at the end.  Quinn, of course was running around.  (What a better place than outside?)  His security body guard guy had said no pictures but L. Tom Perry said that it was okay as long as we didn't take any longer that what it would have to shake his hand.  I had Michelle quickly snap a picture with her phone.  She also took one of Karalee.  She felt bad for taking it in the first place since she technically wasn't supposed to.  So, she didn't get one with him.  :(

L. Tom Perry was concerned that this picture and meeting thing was taking too long because it was taking all of sunday school's time.  ...and it did take all of it's time.  He told us that we needed to go because he was going to get in trouble.  His son is at the head of the sunday school board.

Mike and I attempted to go.  We took Quinn to nursery and he was not going to have it.  He screamed, cried, and threw the biggest fit.  I wasn't going to force him to go in a different ward.  So, we didn't stay.

It was a COOL experience.  Mike was very funny about it.  In the car he kept saying, "This is the body that L. Tom Perry put his arms around so when you hug me it's like you're hugging an apostle."  The same thing with shaking his hand, etc.  Ha ha!

Family Visiting 2012

Sunday, July 29
We first saw everyone at the baby blessing.  We were so excited to have family in town (see previous post).  We had a luncheon at my parents house in Ririe.  We thought that would be the best location.  Our house is too small to fit that many people although it does have a nice shaded backyard.  Gene and Karen's doesn't have any shade.  It is structured different that it is hard to fit a lot of people in their house as well.  So, thank you Mom and Dad for the use of your house.

Monday, July 30
We decided this would be the best day to go boating because then Joy could join us.  She had to work the rest of the week.

Gene took us on the boat and almost everyone tubed.  Mike was the only one that tried knee boarding.
Quinn decided he did not want to go in the water.  He only wanted to walk around playing in the dirt and looking for sticks.  He got brave a couple of times and sat in a tube.  But...he was sitting in the tube on the dirt.  Maybe the poor kid got tired.  It was sure hot outside too.

Paxton did well considering.  He was on the dock with us starting out and then got sleepy.  I fed him and then put him to sleep on a blanket.  He slept for about an hour and then woke.  Shortly after we left because he would not go back to sleep.  Quinn was getting tired.  The day before Quinn didn't get a nap because of the baby blessing.  Paxton got little sleep too.

We tried putting Quinn down for a nap but he had a hard time going to sleep.  He probably got about an hour worth of sleep.  We went to dinner at Gene and Karen's but came back early to put Quinn to bed.

Tues, July 31
We stayed the night in a cabin in Island Park.  We borrowed it from Mike's Aunt and Uncle.  We didn't go up till evening since we wanted to stay home and get Quinn a nap.  He actually napped this day.

We arrived just in time for dinner; tin foil dinners. We had a campfire and had to rast marshmellows.  We didn't have any grahams so we used fudge striped cookies and chocolate chip cookies.  They were really good.

Of course, we went to bed way too late.  Quinn kept us entertained by going around and have people fake drink from a toy cup.  Derrick fake burped after he did it and then Quinn expected everyone to do it.  It made him laugh so hard and the other kids also laughed.

Each couple had their own room.  The girls shared a room with G-ma in the bunk bed room.  The boys slept out on the floor in the living room.  We let Quinn sleep out there too.  Mike had to lay with him for him to fall asleep.  Sometime during the night, Quinn woke and walked around to other boys trying to wake them up.  Luckily, he wasn't successful.  Mike caught him in time though.

Paxton fell asleep around 9:30 and was out for the night except for the couple of time he woke in the night.  Other stated they didn't hear him.  That was good.

Wed, Aug 1
We woke kind of late and had breakfast.  We were slow getting started.  Some went down to Buffalo River to fish and the goal was to float later.  Mike was tired so he went back to sleep.  A few of us went on walk.

Karen and Kari help watch Quinn and Paxton while Mike and I floated.  It was a 30 minute float so we weren't too worried about leaving the boys.  Mike had made an agreement with his nieces and nephews that if they ate a bug he would pay them $5.  While we were floating, Bryant caught a dragon fly.  Without any thought, Madi ate it.  She left no reaction; nothing.  She's my hero.  How cool is that?

Max didn't want to float so he was on/around the dock looking for his dragon fly.  He never did catch one.

Someone, assuming it was Bryant, caught a fish and he was cooked for lunch.  We also had hotdogs as an option too.

Some floated down the river again but we decided to head home.  Paxton had just fallen asleep and it was time for Quinn's nap.  Quinn immediately fell asleep and even stayed asleep when we stopped for construction.  I had to go to the bathroom and Mike wanted ice cream.  Getting ice cream was a memory he had when he was a kid and they would float the river so he wanted some for old times sake.  Quinn woke during that stop and didn't go back to sleep either.  He went to bed early that night.

We didn't realize this would be the last time we saw Gina, Derrick, and the kids.  I don't think we officially ever told them bye.  Oops!

Thurs, Aug 2
The whole reason why Bryant and Kari chose this week to visit was for the War Bonnet Rodeo.  This was the only event scheduled for the day.  Quinn was able to get his nap and we were able to rest.  To be honest, I missed a lot of the rodeo because of Paxton.  I went to the car to feed him and had to walk around with him too.  It was way loud and don't think Paxton appreciated the noise.  I don't blame him.  I put him in his car seat and it was actually quite a bit quieter.  That helped a lot.

I guess this was a cool part of the rodeo and this was when I was in the car with Paxton.  This is the only picture taken from the rodeo so I thought I would include it.  I guess these Buffalo were really well trained.  They put on a good show!  Too bad I missed it.

Fri, Aug 3
Late afternoon we went shooting with Bryant, Kari, and their kids and G-ma Karen.  It was not ideal taking the kids but it ended up working out anyways.  Poor Paxton was so tired that once again I was in the car with him.  It was so hot that it was hard getting him to sleep.  Next time, Paxton and Quinn will not join us.

Mike was fair and helped out.  He wanted to make sure I got my fair share of shooting.  He really wanted to make sure I was happy and also having fun.  Thank you Mike!

We went out to dinner with Bryant and Kari to Wingers.  We had a nice meal and talked for a bit.  Then we decided to head back to the house to play games.  We played Hit the Deck and Golf.

We said our goodbyes since the plan their plan was to leave in the morning.  :(  We had a great visit with them and can't wait to see them again.

Paxton's Baby Blessing

We finally had Paxton blessed. We knew Mike's family was planning to visit sometime around the end of July to the beginning of August. For that reason, we decided to wait so they could come too.

The neighbor girl had mentioned that she looked back at me while Paxton was getting blessed and I had the biggest grin on my face.  But why not? I was super happy.  It was really neat to have so many of our relatives there.  We truly are blessed with loved ones all around us and can feel their support.  I'm so glad there are a lot of our family that are members of The Church.  

The best thing though; is that I have a wonderful husband and father to my children.  He honors his priesthood and tries so hard to do what is right.  I know Quinn and Paxton will learn from his example.

I wish that we could have gotten more people in the picture.  It was not my idea and therefore didn't mention it to other people.  By the time we had this picture taken most poeple had already left.

Yay!!! We finally got a picture with us four together.  This is the only picture we have of Paxton in his blessing outfit too.  No individual shot of him this time...

Wyatt got married!!!

Congratulations Wyatt and Kirsten!

I wasn't able to go the wedding in Oklahoma.  Mike went leaving me and the kids behind.  It would have been too hard for us all to go and probably expensive too.

This is the longest that we have away from each other.  I was ready for the challenge and wanted Mike to go and be with his family.  I handled well while he was away.

However, when he returned the kids seemed jealous and somewhat possessive of me. This seemed to cause problems in which the kids were hard to handle.  Fortunately, we are back on track and things are going well for us. 

Class reunion

I'm getting old!  I just had my class reunion.  It was a lot of fun.  We had an adult only night where we went to Pizza, Pie, Cafe in Rexburg.  I thought it was a great idea.  No one had to cook and it was all you can eat.  We reserved a room in the back.  The only problem was that it was so echoy like the inside of a swimming pool.  We all had to talk so loud to hear one another.  It was great to see everyone though.

The next day, Saturday, was for families.  We had a swimming pool with a slide for the kids.  There was wonderful food, make-up for the girls (Russell brought it since it was leftover from where he works), pinatas, water balloon volleyball, and a whole lot of talking.  Betty Chase was so kind to let us use her backyard.

Mike was not able to come with me this time.  He had to work.  I had the kids alone.  I, most of the time, have them alone anyways.  So, it really shouldn't be a big deal.  It seems like, this time, the kids were a little more cranky than usual.  Of course, this happens around people that I haven't seen in a long time.  I suspect they just thought they were tired.

Quinn did get his first real good whack in the head.  He walked behind someone while they were swinging.  He disappeared while I was trying to settle Paxton and then someone tells me that he's been hit.  It wasn't that bad and he didn't cry for long.

Everyone was so kind to help out.  I had people holding Paxton while I dished our plates.  When I nursed, inside the house for more privacy, Jesse helped take care of Quinn.  I had Ty help me to my car.  Etc...these are just a few example of everyone's kindness.

It is good to know that almost anywhere I go, I have a few extra helpers and people who understand what I'm going through.  They're more than willing to help since they too themselves have been there.

Thank you everyone!