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.

Yard Work

Yesterday, Jabon came home from work early because he wasn't feeling well. Soon after that, we decided to go to Home Depot and get some pavers to create a walkway in our backyard in between our grass and the garden we wanted to plant.

Cody took a picture of us. It was well over 90-something degrees outside. And I am sure you all want to know: I was sweating profusely! Pay no mind to the extremely white legs. They rarely see the sun.



We are working on our yard a little at a time. It's a big chore, but something I think both Jabon and I enjoy working on. It was nice to have Jabon home on a Saturday, even though he wasn't feeling well.

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.

Ashton rolled over!!

I got a text from the sitter today letting me know that Ashton rolled over (from his belly to back) 3 times this afternoon! I was so excited to hear that, because he's been taking his sweet time learning new things.

When I got home from work, I put him back on his tummy, which he hates with a passion, in an attempt to see him roll. I was video taping it so I could post it on the blog, but all I got was a baby yelling at the top of his lungs. He rolled halfway. He twisted enough to get his shoulders to touch the floor, but his big butt stayed planted where it was. I might still decide to post it, because it is kinda funny to see.