Ashton's First Birthday!!

My little guy Ashton turned ONE on Thursday, the 22nd. We celebrated his birthday on Sunday. My grandma Pearl came over, bringing along with her my cousins Hunter and Hadyn. And of course my sister Shelly, her husband Josh, and their kids Emma, Abby, Matt, and Millie were with us. The kids had a lot of fun together.

I wanted Ashton to have his own birthday cake, so I made some miniature cakes and one big cake. Each of the kids got their own cake. Ashton really enjoyed his!




Left to right: Cody, Hunter, Abby, Ashton, Emma, Matt, Hadyn, Brett

Today Ashton had his 1 year check up. He is 32" long and weighs 21 lbs, 1 oz.

What do you call me?

My house is a zoo this week. Besides the usual for us (full time jobs; school for Cody, Jabon, and I; football practice 2 x week and a game every Saturday; and physical therapy for my knees) we have had guests with us. Jabon's mom has been here since July watching the kids for us and about 2 weeks ago his dad drove down from Colorado to pick her up and spend some time with us. Plus, my brother-in-law has been here since August while he has been working at a local hospital and waiting for his family (my sister Shelly and their 4 kiddos) to move down. They arrived Wednesday night with my dad in-tow. SO we have 14 people in my little 1800 sq ft house.

Kids get easily confused. And yes, these two subjects are related. This afternoon Cody, Brett, and I were leaving the house to go to football practice. Brett was saying goodbye to each person individually. When he got to my dad and sister he said, "Goodbye, Aunt Shewy" and did not say anything to my dad. So, my dad asked him, "Brett, if she's Aunt Shelly, what do you call me?" Brett shrugged and, thoroughly confused because of all the family around-including 2 grandpas, said, "Um, Spiderman?" So my dad is Grandpa Spiderman from now on.

The Lazy Gene

Jabon says I have a lazy gene. I love to sleep in and would do it every single morning if I could. Waking up at 9:30 or 10:00 puts me in a great mood for my day. The only problem is that I married a man who believes that the day must begin before the sun comes up. We've had numerous 'discussions' about which is best: me sleeping as late as my body needs and having a grumpy husband because I've just wasted half of the day (and usually the cooler half of our days now that we live in Arizona) OR having a slightly grumpy me, a happier hubby, and time to go out and play.

I am not the only one of my family members with this lazy gene. My brother Jared was pretty lazy when he lived with us, Cody is lazy and would prefer to spend every waking moment sitting on the couch watching t.v. or playing a video game, and Ashton is lazy. I bet your asking yourself how I could deduce that a 10 month old is lazy. Isn't that a little young to be able to categorize him with the lazy gene? Let me explain...

My healthy, strong 10 month old baby boy does not walk. Nor is he crawling. He can't even stand up straight, let alone stand by himself. When we hold him up so he can practice standing, he is bent much in the same fashion as a boomerang.

Ashton is, however, extremely good at rolling. He can find his target spot, roll towards it, twist himself around, and get to where he wants to be. So to him, he is mobile enough.

Knowing this, you can imagine my extreme delight when I got to see him sort-of crawl for the first time this afternoon! It reminded me more of an army crawl, but by golly! He is actually using his legs for a change!!

I recorded him doing this crawl. He is going toward a light saber. Boys will be boys no matter their age! (It's funny I say that regarding a light saber. Just the other day the adults in the house (me, Jabon, Josh, and my mother-in-law Lee Ann) were watching 17 Again and during the light saber fight scene, both Jabon and Josh yelled out that they wanted one so they could play, too. Like I said: no matter their age.)

Yes, Nice Cops Do Exist...

Today I got the pleasure of meeting a very nice cop that works so diligently for our county. He lit up my morning by being nice enough to pull me over. He ever so kindly reminded me that my vehicle's tags had expired. Here's how it went down:

Cop: "Good morning, do you know why I pulled you over?"
Me: "Yes, I do." Oh, crap! I thought.
Cop: "And why is that?"
Me: "My tags are expired." I have no problem getting right to the point.
Cop: "Why haven't you renewed them?"
Me: "I haven't been able to afford it yet." I gave him no excuses, 'cuz he doesn't really care anyway.
Cop: "Did you know you can get a 30 day temporary tag for $15 online?"
Me: "No." Stunned, with my mouth a little wider than normal.
Cop: "Did you know I can give you a $600 ticket for expired tags?"
Me: "No, but I figured it would be a high fine." Why lie? The government wants as much money from you as they can get.Why wouldn't the fine for expired tags cost more than the tags themselves??

At this point he took my license and insurance and went back to his car and partner (who showed up in his own vehicle. I guess a blonde driving a Jetta with expired tags can certainly be threatening, right?) This whole time I'm praying, "Please don't give me a ticket, please don't give me a ticket!"

Thankfully, this wonderful officer gave me a warning and sent me on my way. I promptly got on Arizona's website as soon as I got into work and ordered, paid for, printed, and posted in my rear window the temporary tag. I am NOT getting pulled over for that again!

I believe that was the first time I have been pulled over since I got married. 9 years. Maybe that, along with my honesty and forthrightness, helped me avoid a ticket.

So I give a big shout out to cool cops who give a break to people now and then. Hears to you!

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.