BYU Football Coach's Show

Jaxon got invited to attend the BYU Football Coach's Radio Show by one of his friends.  He got to see Coach Bronco Mendenhall along with JD Falslev in the press box at the BYU football stadium.  Coach Mendenhall and a BYU player record a live radio show there every week with KSL.  Jaxon loved it and couldn't stop talking about it.

Jaxon with his buddies in the press box.  Coach Mendenhall jumped in to join the picture!  I love that Jaxon is acting all casual about it.  The week Jaxon attended just happened to be the same week as rivalry week with the University of Utah.

Jaxon and his friends checking out the view of the field from the box seats.  Jaxon even came home with a bag full of BYU give-a-ways that he received for attending.  It was definitely a once in a lifetime experience and he loved every minute of it!

Crazy Weather

We have had an abundance of rain lately, but I won't complain. It is much needed rain. But just check out some of these storms we have had recently:

Josh and his friend out playing in the rain with umbrellas.  It was a downpour.

Another afternoon we were traveling through Orem to get to a BYU football game.  The clouds were spinning and looking quite scary.  We were beginning to wonder if we were going to be visiting the Land of Oz instead of Cougar Stadium.  So we swung by my parent's house to wait out the storm and what a storm it was!  Check out the waterfall coming off their roof just right of the trampoline.  It looked like Niagara Falls!

It caused a flood under the trampoline and in their garden as well.  I had never seen so much rain all at once here in Utah!  The roads were all flooded and parking lots had turned into lakes.  There was just no where for all the water to go!  We thought about not going to the BYU game due to the nonstop rain, but we called Jaxon who was at home and he told us, "You have to go!  You know "we will fight, day or night, rain or snow'!"  So we went to the game and had a great time thanks to Jaxon, and thankfully the weather had cleared up.  Crazy weather.

12!

Yesterday was Jaxon's twelfth birthday. Hard to believe this giant teddy bear has been part of our family for that long!  Yesterday was a busy day with soccer and football games, but we made sure we had time to celebrate!

I'm 12!

Presents and bonking on the head along with some pretty good wish giving.

Jaxon received some new ties to go along with his suit that he gets to wear now that he is a Deacon and passing the sacrament at church.  He wore his suit and blue tie to church today for his ordination.  He was so handsome he brought me to tears.  He also received a couple of much wanted video/Wii games.

Earlier in the week we had Grandma and Grandpa over.  Grandma had made Jaxon a birthday cake that was very tasty!  She had even hidden a coin in the cake just as her mom used to.  She did it when I was a kid too.  It was a fun walk down memory lane.

As part of his birthday we got to go to the BYU vs. Utah game.  We were all wearing new royal blue game day shirts.  Sadly, it wasn't much of a football game.  Thank goodness there were Dippin' Dots to make things better!

Twelve Things We Love About Jaxon:

1. His love for sports and staying active.  We just wrapped up soccer season and we are starting flag football season this week.  However, his true love is basketball.
2. Jaxon really knows how to clean a toilet!  As much as he hates it, he is good at it.  (You're welcome future wife!)
3. His tender heart.  He can't stand it when someone is left out, or when someone is being rude.  He is the first to jump in and make someone feel better and stop the rude behavior.  He is a great friend to all!
4. His imagination.  He likes to have dart gun wars, Harry Potter wand duels, build forts, have Lego battles and run around outside all while using his imagination.
5. He knows how to give a sincere compliment.  Just ask all the 5th grade teachers.  They looked forward to seeing Jaxon every morning just to hear what kind of compliment he would give them.
6. He is quick to get his homework done or quick to get his jobs done so he can spend his time having fun.
7. His contagious giggle.
8. He likes my cooking.  What mother doesn't love that? His favorite is Creamy Mashed Potatoes, which has been renamed "Jaxon's Favorite Potatoes".
9. He is self-confident and likes who he is.
10. His desire to serve and help others.  
11. People know that they can rely on Jaxon to do what he says he will do.
12. His hugs.  After all, he is my giant teddy bear!

Happy Birthday Jaxon!  We are so grateful for you and love you more than you will ever know!

Notes From Kayden

So last night Kayden didn't get his way. He wasn't happy. (Shocker.) He locked himself in his room and only came out to deliver the following notes:
 

Just in case you can't decipher his kindergarten handwriting and spelling it say, "My mom and dad mean to me."  I didn't know whether to be offended or impressed.  He had never spelled words let alone a whole sentence!

Then he gave me this picture.  He explained that this is a picture of our house and that Suki (the dog) is inside and at the end of the driveway (bottom of the picture) is him leaving the house.  All I could do after that was laugh!

Soccer Sara

My niece Sara has moved from New Jersey to the Promise Land to play soccer for the Utah State Aggies!  She invited us up to their home opener game and a team/family dinner.  We couldn't say no to that!  We had a great time watching the Aggies win their home opener and it was a huge bonus spending time with Sara after the game.

Sara with Josh, Kayden and Jaxon on the soccer field.  McKay couldn't make the trip with us due to football commitments.

Jaxon and Sara post game.

Kayden told Sara, "I'll give you a hug and you hug me.  That will be a good picture!"

Demolition Derby

Who doesn't love watching cars crash into each other on purpose? Our family went to the Utah County Fair's Demolition Derby and enjoyed exactly that. We also loved it when the cars would flip over on their sides or roofs. It was great entertainment for all and we can't wait to go back next year!

First Day of School 2013

After a busy summer, the boys finally headed back to school:

McKay on his first day of 8th grade.  He is so glad he won't be called a "sevy" this year.  He also has the new experience of ridging the bus to school instead of carpooling.

Off he goes to the bus stop.  He wouldn't let me go with him, so I snapped a picture as he was on his way to the bus stop.

Josh all set for 3rd grade with Mrs. Knight and Jaxon all set for 6th grade with Mrs. Moedl.

Once the boys were off to school, Kayden and I headed to the zoo with some friends.  Since he is in kindergarten this year, he started a week after his brothers.

The zoo added a bunch of Lego exhibits along with a play area full of giant Legos.  Kayden had a good time building towers.  All day long he asked me to take his picture.

Kayden and his good buddies checking out the rhinos.  Kayden always had his zoo map in hand.

Having some fun climbing the rhino statue after lunch.

Polar bear statue--mom take my picture!

Now with the lion statue--ok mom?

How Kayden measures up to an orangutan.  He is as big as an adult male!

One of the new Lego exhibits at the zoo.  That's a lot of Legos!

Just monkeyin' around the zoo!

 

Finally the day came when Kayden got to start kindergarten with Mrs. Calton!  He was so excited to finally put on the new shoes that had been sitting in his closet for so long!

All the boys starting afternoon kindergarten that live in our neighborhood.  Out of all these boys, not one of them is in Kayden's class!

Kayden acting cool with his best buddies.

Lined up and ready to go!

And in he goes!  He had been waiting for this day for a long time!  Finally he gets to go to the same school as Josh and Jaxon!  It's going to be a great year!

Camping at Lake Palisades

We decided to go on one more fling before summer ended, so we went camping at Lake Palisades with a bunch of friends.  It was a nice relaxing weekend with good food, good fun and good friends.

Kayden enjoyed his breakfast our first morning.  He made a mess of eating his scone!

At the beach by the lake, there were a lot of little frogs.  Kayden really got into catching them.  This one in his hand he named Toby.  He wanted to keep it but I said no way.  (I know, shocker.)  So we took a picture so he could remember his frog.  Later he caught another one he named Fred.  They could have been the same frog for all we knew.

We all pitched in and rented a paddle boat (the blue one) for the day.  The kids loved it and had a lot of fun with it.

How many kids can you fit on one paddle boat?  Many more than the 4 man limit!  Josh and Kayden had fun being with all the kids.

McKay even took turns taking the kids for a spin, but made Kayden and Josh do all the work.

We had watermelon for lunch and Suki--who came camping with us--discovered that she liked it.  She had quite the pink face!
 

 

Kayden loves watermelon too as his face matched Suki's!

A couple of our friends brought up their four wheelers and let us take them for a spin.

We woke up our second morning to discover this guy on the outside of our tent.  It was huge!  Shudder with me now--yuck!
 

The boys all dirty and ready to go home to clean up.  It was a successful camping trip with lots of memories made.

Stuck in the Sand

While Dad was painting the playset....

...Owen got buried in the sand!

 

These two are great pals and always find ways to have fun with each other!

Jimmerosity

You know how much my boys love Jimmer Ferdett, it was pretty prevalent in 2011 when we were in the height of Jimmer Fever.  So when Jimmer and his foundation came to town with a 3 on 3 mini basketball tournament we had to sign up!

Jimmer came and talked to the kids about putting a stop to bullying and being kind.  Jaxon and Josh had stars in their eyes.

It couldn't have been better when Tyler Haws showed up with a few other BYU basketball players.  Jaxon took the chance to talk to Tyler and told him that they are related. (They both have the same Great-Great Grandma and Grandpa Haws.)

Here is Josh with some of his good buddies that he played with in the tournament.  Their team name was "The Oreo Dunkers" and while they weren't the best team at the tournament, they were definitely the most popular.  All day long they had people telling them how much they loved their team name!

Jaxon with some friends from our ward that he played in the tournament with.  Their team name was "Black Knights".

We discovered that winning in this tournament requires a lot of hard work!  Both boys played well and they had a good time.

Florida Family Reunion

We had a great time this summer going to Florida with my WHOLE family.  That is right.  All of us were there--my parents, siblings, nieces nephews, everyone--and I must say that was the best part about our vacation.  I loved being with my family.  However, there were some other good parts as well:

We left on Wednesday, July 24.  Above is Kayden getting ready to board our first flight.  He is all set to go with his drink in hand.  It was fun to text back and forth to everyone and send pictures letting each other know where we were on our journey to Florida.

On our layover in Dallas, Josh and I did some exploring and sent a picture to everyone with he and his new friends.

Once we finally arrived in Florida (quite late at night), we had a good time visiting parks and hanging out together.  On our first day there, Thursday July 25, we went to Gatorland.  It was fun being a redneck for a day.

McKay feeding the alligators hotdogs.  I thought the gators would go crazy over the hotdogs, but mostly we just binged them in the head with the hotdog and they did nothing....

....except for this guy.  He sat there with his mouth gaping open wanting you to land a hotdog in his mouth just right.  What a lazy gator!

Here are a few of my nices and nephews with Kayden watching a gator show.  A couple of crazy guys were feeding the alligators whole raw chickens.  Again, I thought the gators would be more aggressive, but they just kind of ho-hummed around.

The dudes feeding the alligators.  Not much action going on.

Aaaahhh!  Josh was captured by an alligator!

McKay was captured as well!

And then Kayden also!  It was a fun day--minus the huge rainstorm that soaked us completely!

All of the grandkids at Gatorland.  Love these kids!

After visiting Gatorland, we decided to grab some lunch/dinner at the World's Largest McDonalds.  They had a wide variety of food there, and more fun and games that you can imagine.

Lachlan and Jaxon (with Tyler in the background) dancing their hearts out on Dance, Dance Revolution.
 

Samantha and Josh hanging out with Ronald McDonald.  I think Ronald and Samantha with their red hair make a fine couple--hehe.

Sara with Alexa on her lap and Kayden enjoying a ride simulator.

They had a really cool air-hockey table where four people could play at once.  It was a lot of fun to play and a lot of fun to watch!

Kayden made friends with Ronald too.  He always was asking to have his picture taken.

The next day, July 26, we went to Universal Studios.

Kayden loved dancing with the Despicable Me minions after riding The Minion Mayhem ride.  Check out his dance moves:

We were having a great day until we decided to ride the new Transformers ride that was launched just a couple of weeks before our arrival.  We ended up waiting in line for over two and half hours....

....where Jeremy fell asleep on a garbage can.  The wait was so ridiculous that we gave up and went and got some lunch so we could enjoy the rest of the park.  Most of my family stayed to go on the ride and waited for over three and a half hours!

My sister Caprice and her husband Scott ate lunch with us which was really fun and nice.  After lunch, Kayden was in a bad mood and would not cooperate.  See him hiding behind the sign?  Stinker!

McKay outside of the Monster Cafe where we ate lunch.

Josh ready to be zapped.

McKay was so good to give Kayden piggyback rides around the park.  While we were waiting in line for the Shrek 4-D movie, we noticed that Kayden was wearing two shirts!  He had put his shirt on over his pajamas that morning.  Granted it was very early in the morning when we got ready to leave to Universal, but it was a hot day!  I don't know how stood it!

This picture definitely paints a thousand words!  This is my favorite picture from the whole trip.  It has my whole family in it minus my brother-in-law Scott who was unable to ride with us and my nephew Lachlan who ducked and you can't see him.  He is the blank spot on the back row.

On July 27 (my birthday), we went to Universal's Island of Adventure where the Wizarding World of Harry Potter is.  It was amazing!  We went straight to the Harry Potter ride.

Here we are waiting in line in Professor Sprout's greenhouse.  It is a good chunk of my family starting with Shane (closest to the camera) and then Bryan, Lachaln, Jaxon, Grandma, McKay, Marissa, Kayden, Sara, Samantha, Alexa, Becca, Tyler, Debra and Paul.

Entering Hogwarts Castle.  It was awesome!

Josh with the Sorting Hat behind him.

The Harry Potter ride was awesome and we loved it.  We ended up riding it three times that day.  It was my favorite ride by far!

After riding Harry Potter, my mom and I took the younger kids to ride Flight of the Hippogriff, which is a small roller-coaster.  I love that Kayden and Alexa were holding hands in line.  Kayden loves his cousins.

Getting ready to go!  Alexa and Kayden are in the front car, with Josh and Lachlan in the second car.

McKay, Josh, Jaxon and Kayden in front of Hogwarts Castle.  Everything looked like it jumped from the pages of a Harry Potter book!

While the big kids went on the big rides and roller-coasters, I went with Kayden, Josh and Jaxon on the more milder rides.  I enjoyed the day much more that way.  Above is Kayden and Lachlan riding the merry-go-round in Dr. Seuss Land.  It was a great birthday!

On Sunday July 28, we spent the whole day at the hotel swimming in the pool, playing cards and hanging out.  It was a must needed rest day.

On Monday, July 29, we went to Disney's Magic Kingdom with Grandma and Grandpa.  We arrived early and were able to ride everything we wanted before lunch.  Sadly, Pirates of the Caribbean was closed as was Thunder Mountain.  But we had a great time riding everything else!

I loved this picture of McKay and Kayden riding Space Mountain.  Kayden was good to try every ride, but he sure let you know if he didn't like it.  He thought Space Mountain was pretty awesome as did everyone else.

Kayden got a drivers license and took McKay for a spin around Tomorrow Land's Speedway.

Josh took his dad for a spin and proved to be a pretty good driver!

Grandma driving along.

Jaxon reminding me of the time he drove the Speedway when he was about three in California.  He had the exact same face with the tongue sticking out in concentration. 

Jaxon was a good driver and I enjoyed our cruise very much.

Kayden and Buzz Lightyear.

Grandma and Grandpa comparing scores on Buzz Lightyear's Space Ranger Spin.

Kayden outside of the Winnie the Pooh ride.  They actually have interactive stuff for the kids to do while they wait in line now.  It was nice and made the time move quickly.

Josh and Dad on Dumbo.

Kayden and McKay with Jaxon behind them riding Dumbo.  My kids have never seen the movie Dumbo, so they couldn't figure out what the flying elephant was all about.

Josh with Jaxon in the background on a little splash pad in the middle of the park.

Jaxon on the left and Kayden on the right.  Kayden looks like he was pooped!

Kayden and McKay riding It's a Small World.  That ride was much longer than I remembered.  It was definitely not one of McKay's favorites!

We love Grandma and Grandpa!  (On It's a Small World.)

We met up with Paul and Debra and their family at lunch time and spent the rest of the afternoon with them.  We left the park much earlier than they did as we arrived at the park much earlier.  But it was fun to be with them at the park for a few hours.  We rode Jungle Cruise together:

Kayden, McKay and Jeremy.

Josh, Paul, Lachlan, Jaxon, Marissa and Debra cruisin' along.

The family in front of Cinderella's Castle.

Grandma and Grandpa.

On our last day of vacation, July 30, we went to Coco Beach with everyone and played in the waves and the sand.  I didn't take my camera out that day, I was afraid of it getting ruined by the sand.  (We ruined one of our old cameras at the beach once.)  But it was a fun and it was great to spend our last day all together.  We then flew home on July 31.

It was a fun and exhausting vacation.  The kids fell asleep in the car on the way home from the airport.

McKay and Kayden used Grandma as a pillow.  I think Grandma liked it.

It was a memorable week!  We were so happy to be with our aunts, uncles cousins and grandparents.  We can't wait for the next family reunion vacation!