Eagar Update

So, it has been at least 6 weeks since my last post. I figure it is about time to write on the happenings of the Eagar household.

Thanksgiving: We had a great Thanksgiving this year! My brother-in-law Brighton made his first trip down to see us since we moved to Arizona. He and Jabon have a lot in common and had a great time together. It was wonderful, since Jabon was able to have the Friday and Saturday after Thanksgiving off so he got to actually hang out with all our guests. My parents flew in from Montana and my littlest brother Peter and his wife Genica drove down from Utah. We went to many places and did a lot of things! On Black Friday, mom, me, Shelly, and Genica went shopping at Wal-Mart. We didn't go too crazy. We got there at 5am, so we were late. I wasn't getting much for myself but I did help Shelly score BIG TIME on her girls' Christmas gifts. That story I can not expound on since I was more of 'Santa's helper', if you catch my drift. Later that day, we went and walked around a bird preserve in Gilbert and then ended the day going through the Gilbert Museum. Saturday we all headed up to the Phoenix Zoo. With Sunday came church and Peter, Genica, and Brighton all heading back home. Monday, me, Jabon, Brett, Ashton, and my parents went up to the Boyce Thompson Arboretum to the east of Phoenix. It is a really cool place to see a ton of different plants. The main trail is about 1-1/2 miles long. Off this trail were many different areas: tropical, desert, herb garden, etc. We didn't see much of it (since it is so vast) but Jabon and I hope to return at another time and see other areas. Mom and Dad got to hang out until the Thursday after Thanksgiving. It was so great to spend so much time with our family. One of our funnest activities to do together was play Guitar Hero. We were all selfish adults and made the children go to bed before we pulled the game out. One night we had a competition between the guys and the gals. Needless to say, girls won 4 out of 5 times. Yes, we truly do rock. Beatles style.

Kids: Cody had his first band concert last night. He plays trumpet and has really picked up the instrument quite well. He is doing great in school and is enjoying his classes. His football team finished the season in 2nd place. Somehow, they got to go all the way. I say 'somehow' because it wasn't the best year of playing. Brett has been confused lately. My sister Shelly and her family have been living with us since Aug/Sept and Brett is now under the impression that he has two moms. One that goes to work and school and is home only an hour before his bedtime (me) and one who is with him 24 hours of each day, cleaning up his throw up, playing games with him, making his meals (Shelly). Oh, I am sorry! Did I sound a little bit jealous? Guess what, I am. That is okay. I love my sister and am so glad she is here to help us out! I have also seen Brett grow into what I call the 'Second Child Syndrome'. If you have children, see if this fits yours: He is bossy. He likes to tell all the kids, including the ones that are older than him (oh, wait-that is all the kids except for the two babies) what to do and what they just did. It is exasperating! I am the second child, so I can relate. You need to be in control over something, and being bossy accomplishes that. Ashton is getting closer and closer to walking. Yes, my baby is now almost 14 months old. He likes to take each new phase as slowly as he can. He feels no rush to develop. If you want more on that subject, just look in my history for the Lazy Gene post. He will stand up, but only while holding onto someone/thing. He is barely walking along the end of the couch. That is okay by us, though. It is helping extend the baby phase, and I kinda like that!

My sister: So, as mentioned before, my sister Shelly, her husband Josh, and their four kids (Emma, 8, Abby, 7, Matthew, 5, Millie, 1) have been living with us. Josh came down in August and Shelly and the kids came down late September. This has been an adventure for all of us, I think! We have an 1800 sq ft home and own a lot of stuff. A wonderful thing about our tiny home is the fact that there are 5 bedrooms. So we have had one room with it's private bath for Shelly, Josh and Millie, Cody, Brett and Matt shared one room with all the toys, Emma and Abby shared one room that was halfway filled with my junk, and we moved Ashton into the master bedroom with Jabon and I, leaving one room to be used as our office. It is tight quarters and with 7 crazy kids, it was a challenge to keep the peace. I think we did alright. As I am typing this, Shelly and Josh are moving into their rental house. It's a definite mixture of emotions. I love their family so much and will miss seeing them at any time but I am also glad to be able to get our house back to 'normal'. Before Josh moved down, my mother-in-law was staying with us, so we have had someone living here since July. But, we are very glad that we have been able to help Shelly and Josh make their transition to Arizona easier.

My new job: I was offered a Front Office Manager position with a new dental office. This office is located in Gilbert and is about a 30 minute drive into town for me. It opened in March and has had a few people through its doors as manager. However, none of them really knew what they were doing. I started here on November 16th and quickly realized that I have some major organizing that needs to take place. I have been super busy getting the patients accounts fixed, insurance payments in, and the office finances resolved. This economy is hard, but it is even harder if you have people working for you that are idiots and they are in charge of making y0ur business succeed. I have accomplished a lot of things so far, but have much more to do before it is not so shaky. I enjoy the doctor, the assistant, and the hygienist. They are all wonderful people and together I think we can make his office a great place.

My surgery: Since I was probably about 9 yrs old or so, I have had pain in both my knees. Around age 11 I saw a doctor, who thought it was Osgood Schlater's Disease (where the ligaments in your knee pull away from your bones. It happens a lot in young boys because they are too active during their major growth times) and was told it would go away when I quite growing, about 18 yrs old. Well, I am 29 now and still have knee pain. I went into the hospital yesterday for surgery. My doctor thought there might be some damage behind my kneecaps (or so the MRI seemed to say) but when he got in there, everything looked very healthy. There was a little inflammation, which he removed, but no damage. It turns out that the tendon coming down from my kneecap is not positioned right. It should hook to the tibia directly below the kneecap, but mine are attached to the outsides of me tibia. This must be were the pain is coming from. However, the only way to fix it is by breaking my tibias right below the attachment (since it is like this in both knees) and repositioning it. Major surgery, major recoup time. I say, "No, thanks". I do not think I want to try that. I don't know. Maybe I do. Right now I am sitting on the couch, both knees wrapped up propped on pillows. It's a sight. It will be a bigger sight in a few days. I cannot shower until Sunday when I get to remove my wraps. Yay.

If you made it through my post, pat yourself on the back. Since I suck at routinely posting, I have to do incredibly long posts every so often just to catch up. Good job getting through it.

My life in the month of July

Things have been uber crazy for me this past month. Let's see if I can remember most things and enlighten you on them.

First, school. Summer semester is pretty difficult. Especially when you are taking 3 classes. I started with 2 for the Summer I session. This lasted until July 23rd. However, on July 6th I started Summer II, adding on one more class. Summer II goes to August 6th. What this meant was that every spare second at home was occupied with any one of my three courses. And they were College Algebra, General Business, and Managerial Accounting.

Finals week for Summer I was a little brutal. We had just come home from Colorado (more on that below). In 3 days I had 6 exams. I went into finals week feeling very unprepared. I had very little time to study for my exams and just went into them with a prayer that I at least get a passing grade. Thankfully, I did. So now I am down to just one class, my accounting. I will then have a wonderful two week long rest from school before Fall semester starts. Oy!

This month was filled with a lot of traveling. Jabon's grandma died on our anniversary and her funeral was on July 3rd up in Heber City, UT. We were able to drive up to UT for her funeral and spend time with his family. His grandma was being buried in a little town in Idaho called Geneva, so we also drove up to be a part of that. Jabon and Cody were pallbearers. It was really beautiful. Jabon's cousin Beth got to ride up from Utah to Idaho with us. They haven't seen each other for about 15 years, so it was great for them to catch up on things. Cody talked his grandparents Eagar into taking him back to Colorado with them, so he was on his own 'vacation' until we showed up two weeks later.

We went to Colorado for my little brother's temple sealing and reception. Peter and Genica married last year when he got home from his mission and were able to get sealed the 18th. They also found out two weeks beforehand that she is pregnant! So another niece or nephew is on the way!!

Jabon was asked to be their wedding photographer. So he took their pictures while I posed everyone. We had a lot of fun doing it and even joked about the idea of doing it professionally. We also took engagement photos for our friends Ben and Amanda, who are getting married in March. Here is a pic of my brother and his wife at the Denver temple:

Thankfully, Ashton and the other boys were great travelers.

We brought Jabon's mom down to AZ with us. Our sitter is having a baby soon and we needed someone to watch the kids. So, she came down to stay until October, giving our sitter enough time to recover from her scheduled C-section.

My sister Shelly, her husband Josh, and their 4 kids came down a day after we got back from CO. He interview and scored a job with a hospital in Scottsdale. He starts Aug 10th. I am extremely excited! My big sis is moving down from Montana to live by me! I am stoked to have our kids grow up together! While they were here we went to our grandma Pearl's house. Here she is holding two of her newest great-grandbabies:
Ashton is on the left and his cousin Millie, who is exactly 2 months younger, is on the right. They are pretty identical in a lot of ways. It will be a lot of fun watching them get older together.

While Shelly and her family were here, it was as hot as usual. So Jabon and the kids hooked up the sprinkler contraption and had fun in the back yard:
This was a long post, I realize. Sorry for that but it has been so busy that I can't seem to blog any sooner that every 3-4 weeks! Plus, I am working full time and Cody's football season begins in a little more than a week.

I really need a vacation at a spa. No phones, tv, school, or worries. Just me, hot stones, mud, and relaxation. I think I'm going to start a fund. Wanna pitch in?

9 Years of Wedded Bliss

Jabon and I are celebrating our 9th anniversary today. We both are pretty proud of our accomplishment! We've had some rough patches and some awesome times. I think I can say for the both of us that we feel truly blessed to be each others partner in crime, I mean, partner in life. :)

I love my husband so much! He is a wonderful man, so strong, dependable, smart, handsome, and a great dad. I am really excited to see where our lives and love go from here. I look forward to the day when we can make our marriage everlasting and our family eternal.

Here are a few pictures of our wedding day. They are not the best, but you get the idea. We took about 3 whole days to plan for our wedding and Jabon's mom did the best she could, given the situation, to make our wedding day nice. Jabon's dad and brother took our pictures, we married in the Black Forest ward church house and had our reception in the gym right after. Jabon's mom bought me a prom dress off the clearance racks, we picked out some flowers, got cheesecake from Sam's Club and were all set! Unfortunately, none of my family were able to make my wedding due to them living so far away and me giving so little warning. But, when love beckoned I ran to it!

My 3 Sons

As all you fellow mothers know, the hardest thing about summers is finding something besides t.v. and video games to keep your child's mind active. Today, I decided to teach Cody to bake. So, we took our very ripe bananas and he created banana bread. I supervised, but he measured and mixed everything.

Here is his 'thumbs-up' for a recipe well done! And of course, he is sitting in front of some form of Monopoly. This is the game Cody would play every day of his life if he could! It drives me insane.
And here is Brett, giving his own 'thumbs-up.' He has no clue why Cody is doing it, but if one thing is for sure. it's that Brett will copy Cody on everything.


Ashton is sitting up by himself now. He turned 7 months old a little over a week ago. He still doesn't like to eat baby food much, but he likes the puffs snacks. No teeth yet, so he just gums it to death.

California Adventures

Sunday morning we packed up and left bright and early to go to Monterey, CA. Jabon and I had a few days off work and decided to take the kids to the beach. After we checked into our hotel, we drove south down the coastline and stopped at a ton of beaches. It was the first time the kids saw the ocean; I have rarely seen it myself.

Monday morning we went on the 17 Mile Drive. For those of you that don't know, it is a drive through an exclusive neighborhood along the California coast and features a well known icon, the Lone Cypress. Jabon got some pictures of it, but since he hasn't been able to get through his pictures yet, here is one I snagged off the internet:

After that, we went to Monterey Bay Aquarium. It was really awesome and was exciting to see. Cody's favorite thing was the sharks and Brett swears that was his as well (but I think that's because he wants to be like Cody). We ate dinner at a local joint and then drove out to Hollister, a small town Jabon grew up in. We had some trouble getting onto the right highway but we eventually made it up there. He had a great time down Memory Lane!

Tuesday we got up early and headed to Big Basin Redwood State Park to check out the big trees. I have always wanted to see them and I was not disappointed! They are incredible! We went on a small hike and saw the Mother and Father of the Forest, two of the largest trees there. I think the Mother was about 320 ft tall, she was the biggest. She was 70 ft in diameter, while the Father was 66 ft. I asked Cody why he thought the momma was bigger. He didn't know, so I gave him my conclusion: after the momma has all her babies, she's usually fat. I was feeling bloated and crappy since I hadn't exercised in a few days and I guess that came out in my comments! We also went on another hike to see a waterfall. It was pretty, but the short hike we took was a killer: Straight up the hillside at about a 70 degree angle!

After the redwoods, we drove to Santa Cruz and started hitting the northern beaches all the way back to our hotel (we were staying in Marina). It was such a beautiful day! Sunday and Monday were both pretty foggy, but we could see the ocean for many miles on Tuesday. For dinner, we decided to go eat on Fisherman's Wharf in Monterey. We stopped at a small restaurant on the pier and Jabon finally got his seafood he has been craving since we decided to go to California! I actually tasted the lobster and was quite surprised by how good it tasted. That said, I would never order one for myself. I have too strong of a mental block about eating seafood. It was garnished with caviar, and Jabon and I both sampled it. It was really salty. Not too bad, but definitely not too good, either. After dinner, we walked the pier a bit and got cotton candy at a local candy shop.

This was Ashton's first trip, and overall he did pretty well. Of course he cried while we drove and I so badly wanted to just get him out of his car seat and set him on my lap! Normally, Ashton goes to sleep really easily at home: I just get him ready for bed, feed him a bottle, then lay him in his crib and turn on his music. Unfortunately, this did not happen at the hotel. I had to rock him to sleep the first 2 nights we were in CA. He got better the 3rd night, but I turned on the radio in the room to help him sleep. I read The Host, by Stephenie Meyer to Jabon during the drive. He enjoyed the story, but Ashton must not have. Anytime I started to speak, Ashton would talk back. If I stopped, so would he. When he got really grumpy and loud, we turned on a CD for him and he would fall asleep to Tom Petty.

Sadly, we had to return to reality and came home Wednesday so Jabon and I could get back to work on Thursday. Jabon's first day back to work he was going to be told if he would be affected by Intel's lay-offs. Thankfully, when he had his meeting with his boss today, he was told his job was safe and he would not be laid off. It's unfortunate that we had to go on vacation with the dread of possibly being laid off on our minds, but we are so grateful that he still has his job!

Below is a short slideshow of some of the pictures I took. Like I said, Jabon took some pictures (okay MANY pictures). When he's gone through them, he'll post them onto his blog, so check them out when you've got a chance. He does a great job!

Video Clips

Here's a few videos I've taken over the last few days. I decided to nix the video of the screaming baby as mentioned earlier and show you one of him rolling over. I finally witnessed it for myself the other day!




This is a video of Brett riding the used 'mini' quad Jabon just picked up the other day. He and Jabon rode it together and then Jabon decided to let him ride it by himself. Jabon is running behind him because he's got a string attached to the kill switch that he could pull out if he needed to stop Brett quickly. A note of interest: the quad did not currently have any safety features (aka brakes) on at the time.



Here's one of Cody right afterward. He's a natural on it and rode quite well. Still no brakes on the quad in this video. Jabon just got the brake pads in the mail today.

New things with me

It's been a little over a week, so I guess I should let you all know what's going on.

Cody has been sick this whole week. He only went to school on Friday. He was suffering from a fever, up to 102, and a slightly sore throat. The nice thing was Jabon has every Monday and Tuesday off, so he was home with him then. I took of Wednesday so Jabon could get into work. I took Cody into the doctor that day and had him checked for strep. The in-office test came back negative, but the doctor sent another swab out for a more thorough test. By Friday, Cody was feeling better, but that evening the doctor called and said that the other strep test came back positive. I told him it seemed like that was a late April Fools, since Cody was feeling better. So even though he's feeling fine, he's taking antibiotics. I'm just glad his fever is gone!

While we were at the doctor's office for Cody, Jabon texted me and said he was at Intel's nurses office, because he was not feeling well. They diagnosed him with a bronchial virus. We guess Ashton passed it onto him. Jabon was stubborn and went back to work Wednesday, but his boss sent him home and told him not to return until at least Friday. Jabon was given the same treatments that Ashton had to have.

Speaking of Ashton, he was using the nebulizer every day from Friday until Tuesday. It made a vast improvement on his breathing and I think by Wednesday he had finally kicked that virus. He's doing much better. He's been growing very big and was last weighed in at 18 lbs and 8 ounces. He is getting so tall that his feet are starting to hang over the edge of his car seat. He is finally willing to spend some time on the floor, but hates being on his belly, so he's not very interested in rolling over yet. He is interested in sticking his tongue out frequently, though. It's pretty cute, because he's got a very skinny tongue.

Brett has been having a hard time this last week. He is so jealous of the fact that all the other boys in the family have been sick and have gotten to go to the doctor and get medicine. He kept telling me, "Don't worry, Mom. I'll get sick soon!" He's a crazy one, I tell ya. I was watching General Conference the last few days and at one point Brett was watching with me when President Monson was speaking. I told Brett that this man was the prophet of our church and his name is Thomas S. Monson. His eyes got very big and he said, "Like my Thomas train!!" Later on, when President Monson was back on the screen, I asked Brett if he remembered this man's name. He said, "It's Thomas!" It was incredibly cute!

Gotta go. I've got a grumpy baby I need to care for.

No, I didn't fall off the face of the earth...

I guess it's been a while since I've blogged since my husband asked me when I was going to do a new post. I just got lazy. I was enjoying my Spring Break, even though we didn't go anywhere and I still had to work. But it was nice not having to do homework every single night of the week!

Ashton is 5 months now. He's talking a lot. And by that I mean he's doing the baby talk where he screeches and just makes noises. He is still recovering from the stinkin' bronchial virus he got, but he just has a little bit of a cough left and is doing better. Saturday I learned that a family in our church lost their 5th child, an 8 month old baby boy, to SIDS. He was totally and perfectly healthy and passed away this last Thursday morning. This news really hit me and I had a hard time getting over this even though I don't know the family. Every time I looked at Ashton for the next 48 hours I would get all teary eyed and want to cry. I kept thinking that Ashton could go that easily and that he lost what could have been his little buddy. (I'm obviously still emotional from being pregnant). The Relief Society sent out on email with the family's blog because it had the funeral information on it. There was a picture of the mom holding her son, with dad next to her, just before the coroner took him away. Okay, it's obviously still affecting me, because I gotta switch subjects before I cry.

Here is a picture of my 3 baby boys. See how nicely Cody tans? Just like Peter. Lucky kid.
Brett and Cody are doing good, too. Cody is registered for the next season of football already, even though it doesn't start until August. Brett has been learning new things and having preschool time with the lady who watches the kids for me, 'Babysitter' Lori. He's really enjoying that.

Jabon still has a job, thank goodness. I guess his group's layoffs start in 2 weeks. One good thing is one of the general managers knows him by name (which is nice considering it's all for poitive things and there are 1000's of people who work at his location). This GM told him the other day that he has great things in store for Jabon. So, as long as this GM doesn't get fired, Jabon's job should be okay, too!

As for me, I am re-pledging to exercise. I have only done it once in about 4 weeks--and I was doing so good, too!! But I have been trying to focus on school and studying more than I have earlier in the semester. The nice thing is, my weight hasn't changed, so at least it has not gone up. Hey, I gotta look on the bright side of things.

Derby Days

Cody has his Pinewood Derby last night. Out of about 16 boys, his vehicle came in 7th. He built a truck this year, painted it green and named it the Green Blob. Each boy got an award, and his was 'Heaviest Payload'. That was kinda funny, because we had glued coins to his truck bed for additional weight.

Jabon actually got to attend the Derby this year. Last year it was on a Saturday morning, and it was too difficult for him to get off work. This year, our races started at 6pm, and Jabon was able to leave work a little early. Cody had a lot of fun and was pretty happy about his individual races. There were a total of 4. He took 1st place in two races, and 2nd place in the other two races.