Jackson's 4th Birthday

Yesterday was Jackson's 4th birthday. We started off the celebration by opening presents. He told me to make sure I picked out wrapping paper that was "boyish." Hopefully we met his demands (ignore the pink bag on the side).

Megan made Jackson this special box to put his favorite car in.

With a little encouragement from Megan, Jackson chose to eat at Sweet Tomatoes. They gave him a big bag of chocolate chip cookies to take home.

Next we headed over to race some go-carts and ride on some rides. First we hit the roller coaster which Jackson refused to ride on. Megan actually went on it, but was plastered in fear against me the entire time.

Then Eric took the kids on the big slides. If you enlarge the picture you will see the look of fear on Jackson's face. He refused to go on it again. Megan, however, loved it and went multiple times.


The go-carts were definitely the best attraction. The kids both loved driving them.


I think the highlight of my evening was that Eric and I got to play the Chinese handcuff trick on the kids.


We got home pretty late, but made sure to sing Happy Birthday, and blow out candles before bed.

At 4

• He always holds Sadie's hand when we are in the car.
• He loves to build tracks, and play with cars.
• He loves to talk about Jesus. He can tie Jesus into any subject.

• He has a very giving spirit. If he knows someone really wants something that he has, he will give it to them.
• He likes physical contact. He is still loves to cuddle and give hugs.
• He is easygoing.
• He doesn't care much for T.V., but he loves to play on the computer.

• He knows all of his ABC's and numbers, and has for some time.
• He is always hungry, and constantly asks for food.
• He is a very restless sleeper. Constantly changing positions.
• He is quite athletic, and excels at most sports.

• If he wants something he incessantly asks for it. And he is so cute, that we give in most of the time.
  
• He does a hilarious imitation of Patrick from Spongebob Squarepants.
• If we allowed him to, he would choose to be a nudist.
• We think he may be ambidextrous. He uses both hands for everything.

Happy Birthday Jackson!! We love you!!

SPT

"Ice Cream"

I don't love ice cream. Not that I dislike it, it is just not generally my sweet of choice. However, last year when I was pregnant, I couldn't get enough. I would crave Cold Stone chocolate ice cream with raspberries. My craving got slightly out of control, and I was wanting it pretty much every night. To try and stop the numerous trips to Cold Stone (It was taking a lot of time every day, and it is not exactly cheap), I decided to try and make my own at home. And let me tell you, it was pretty darn good. I started to stock up on chocolate ice cream and frozen raspberries. Needless to say the craving left me, and now I have numerous bags of frozen raspberries that I have not used. But it is good to know they are there awaiting my next craving.

Another 24th

The 24th of July has always been my favorite holiday. When I was little we would go to my Grandma's in Clifton, ID for their annual celebration. And now we take our kids to the big celebration that our Stake puts on every year, right here in North Las Vegas.
We woke up today to cloudy skies with a chance of rain. Of course we did not want rain, but I welcomed the cloudy skies and cooler temperatures. I think every other year it has been at least 110 degrees, so today when we got in the car and saw this, we were very happy.

There is always a ton of food, games, and activities for the kids. For the record I ate 2 tacos, fry bread, a pork sandwich, a snow cone, and lots of soda. Here are some pictures of our day.






Sadie is definitely my third baby. I was very careful about what Megan ate and never would have allowed her to have a snow cone at 6 months, but as you can see I have lightened up, and Sadie is reaping the rewards. She loved this snow cone.

After she had been eating it for quite a while, I finally decided that she probably had enough and took it away. She then started crying and screaming (loudly).

This picture was taken during this time. We then gave the snow cone back to her, and she recovered within seconds.

I am including this picture, because I absolutely love Sadie's double chin.

Self-portrait of me and my bff Rachael. It was another great 24th of July. We were really close to the fireworks and they were quite loud but Sadie didn't even flinch. Jackson did great, and Megan was fine, however she still is my kid that is bothered by loud noises. Every year I don't really want to go (due to the crowds and heat), but every year I am always glad we went.

Jackson Said

Jackson said: "Mom I am all of the good parts of Sadie. Megan is all of the spit and throw-up."

My Finds

I do not enjoy paying full price for anything. I always shop the clearance racks, and frequent discount stores. So today I went to the D.I. and T.J. Maxx. I don't often shop at the D. I. because I have never really found anything good, but they must have gotten a lot of donations recently because they had some pretty nice stuff. If anyone is in the market for a jogging stroller they had one for $15. I almost bought it even though I have no use for it.
I have been looking for a chair for my living room. I want a nice big leather chair, but don't want to spend the money on one. So I adjusted my expectations and found this $5 chair at the D.I. That's right $5. I realize it is somewhat hideous in its current state, but just picture it recovered and with a coat of paint.

I also found these roller blades for Megan for $3, and these roller skates for Jackson for $2. Amazing.


Then I was off to T.J. Maxx. I have also been looking for new bar stools and found ones that I love. I am partial to black furniture, so I was very happy to find these. They were not exactly dirt cheap, but I did find them at T.J. Maxx so you know I did not pay full price.

Lastly, I found these adorable flip flops on clearance. I truly do not need yet another pair of flip flops, but how could I resist.

SPT

"Grass"

I truthfully don't spend much time on the grass. I am quite allergic to it, and usually end up with red marks on the parts of my body that touch it. However, as a child I spent quite a bit of time on the grass, without many ill effects. I do however remember having to jump up many times because I was laying on ants that were now all over my body. I think most of the time I was on the grass I was practicing cartwheels. Let me just tell you, if you attempt these as an adult, prepare yourself before hand. They are much easier to do as an eight year old. It was much harder than I remember. After doing a couple (to get a picture of myself mid-air), I was worn out. I was out of breath, and my back, one leg, and one arm all hurt. But it was kind-of fun.

(Picture courtesy of my 8 year old)

Sink Or Swim

Jackson has been taking swimming lessons the last couple of weeks. He is usually quite brave and willing to try new things, but swimming frightens him a bit. He always did the things his coaches asked him to do, but he did them in a very cautious manner.


It really surprised me that his class was so small. There were only between 3 and 5 kids there everyday, and they were all boys. There were 8 kids on the roll, but I have no idea where they all were.



The pre-school class focus is mainly on getting the kids comfortable in the water. So they pretty much just played different games the whole time. It was fun for the kids, and fun for me to watch. We took the 9 am class this year so it wasn't too hot yet, which was great. Sadie and I could actually sit quite comfortably in the shade and watch. In years past we have taken the 6 pm classes, which were miserably hot.

Last Day

School finally ended today. Megan had a really great year, and learned a lot. Yesterday was the awards assembly, followed by a program her teacher had prepared for her class. They signed the star-spangled banner and performed a play. Megan did a great job, and I was really proud of her for memorizing her part.


I was really excited for Megan to start second grade because she had a great teacher. However, half-way through the year her teacher got cancer, and had to leave. Sadly, she died a few weeks ago. I was really concerned how having this happen was going to affect Megan and the other kids. Megan had been very close to her and loved having her as a teacher. She was able to come and visit with the kids before she died which I think probably helped them. The day she came home from school and told me she had died, Megan said, "At least she is in a much better place now." It was a really sad event, but luckily Megan's school was able to find a replacement teacher (Mrs. Groome) very quickly, and she did a wonderful job.

* On a side note, after school Megan got in the car and dropped a note in the front seat. I reached over and read it and found out it was from a boy in her class professing his love for her. Megan was disgusted and immediately gave the note to Sadie to destroy. I told Megan that I would be excited to get a note like that. She then said, "Hello Mom. I am only in the second grade."

Ready, Set, GOAL!!

Jackson has been taking pee-wee soccer, which ended this week. Jackson loves to play all sports, and soccer was no exception. He loved it, and was really good at it. I was kind of surprised that he did so well, because he has never really played before. He definitely inherited Eric's athletic ability, not mine.


I truly had no idea he was such a fast runner. The first day when their coach told them to run across the gym, Jackson took off so fast it shocked me. That boy can run.


They played indoors in the gym, and spent most of the class learning about ball control. Jackson was great at kicking the ball straight into the goal. The only thing he really struggled with was stopping the ball with his feet. It was hard for him to learn not to use his hands.




He had a lot of fun, and I truly had a lot of fun watching him play. Sadie is still at the age where she will sit on my lap and watch. I know pretty soon I will be chasing her around the gym.

SPT

"Shade"

When we first moved into our home they had already planted one tree and a few plants in our front yard. This is what it looked like:

For a while I wasn't sure if our little tree would make it. We get a lot of wind here and a lot of the trees in the neighborhood had succumbed to it. But luckily, our little tree didn't, and 6 years later it has grown to provide SHADE for the entire front of our house. It keeps a lot of the direct sunshine out, so our kitchen is not so super hot all day. I am so thankful we have it.