washington or bust!

I have Jackson on my lap right now so I have no idea how long this will last. He is already asking to watch "Buzz and Zurg" on the computer. "I watch Zurg. Buzz and Zurg. I watch Buzz and Zurg, Mom."

And now that I'm talking about Jackson, I just have to tell you about this morning. I've been sneezing all morning and each time I do, he says: "Bless you, Mama. Bless you." SO CUTE!

I made him toast for breakfast this morning. Oh, and string cheese. We can't forget that! :) Anyway, about 20 minutes after I made the breakfast, he looked at me with the cutest smile on his face and said: "Thank you for making toast, Mama." How sweet is that??? It melted my heart!

Now onto the purpose of my post ... if you didn't know it already, WE ARE MOVING TO WASHINGTON STATE!!!!!! But only for about 6 months. We are SO EXCITED!!! Shawn got assigned to work on a project at the Fort Lewis Army Base. We are leaving next weekend! Shawn and I flew to WA last week to find a place to live. We fell in love with Washington. Yes, it rained the WHOLE time. But we didn't even mind it. It is SO BEAUTIFUL there! Shawn pulled over to the side of the road and took some pics. It is like this all around the area that we will live and where Shawn will work. Isn't it gorgeous?!



AND, long story short, we found a place to live and we feel like we were totally guided there, if you know what I'm sayin'! :) It wasn't even a place we had been looking at OR an area we had been looking at either. We just found it. And it was meant to be! Here are some pics of the BACK of the apartments.


We are going to miss our family and friends but we really are EXCITED to go! It is going to be a fun little adventure for us. It's almost like an extended vacation! :) Here are just a few of the things we are looking forward to:
- GREEN! Everything is green there. And it's January. I hear it only gets green-er!!!
- MOSS! There is moss everywhere. On the tree trunks, on the rooftops of homes, Shawn even saw moss covering a CAR! Haha! I think it's beautiful.
- SMELL! Ok, I'm sure it's because of the rain and the fact that it seems like we will live in the forest, but it smells soooooo good there! Mmm, it's FRESH air! I loved it!
- TREES! Isn't it gorgeous to drive along a tree-lined street? The trees just go on and on and on. It's amazing.
- CHANGE OF SCENERY! Everything is so different there than it is in Utah. Don't get me wrong, we LOVE our Utah. But it will be so great to just have a change of scenery for 6 months.

Ok, I'm sure there is more I could list but Jackson is SO done with the blog right now. It's "Buzz and Zurg" time!

random august 2010 pics

Jackson LOVES to help us with everything we do. It's really sweet and most of the time he really is helpful. Here he is helping in the kitchen!


Looks like he got a little chocolate-drunk. But who doesn't do that every now and then?


Jackson still has an obsession with the fridge. I was doing dishes one day and turned around just in time to see him waving his arm around and knocking everything down. Lovely. :)


I love seeing all the weird and crazy things he does on the stairs.


These pictures make me miss the summer and all the hikes we love to go on. This was up Little Cottonwood Canyon.



More pics to make me miss the summer. :) At the end of August we borrowed the 4-wheelers from Shawn's parents and went riding up American Fork Canyon. It was SO FUN for us to go with our little family. We had a GREAT day together!


Jackson was a dirty, sticky, dusty mess! (We all were, really!) But it was worth it. Check out how happy he is! He had so much fun! He LOVED being there! He waved at everyone we drove by and commented on everything he saw. It's so cute and it makes us so happy that he loves doing the things that we love too.


Don't worry, we won the "Parents of the Year" award when the Park Ranger stopped us and told us that Jackson's helmet wasn't approved. We felt like really great parents. ;) We'll buy him a new one before we go riding again. (Don't you hate it when stuff like that happens?!)

It really was the perfect day! We can't wait to do it again.

bear lake

Disclaimer: I'm still playing catch-up! I will be for a while.

We went to Bear Lake with the Carlson family (Pam's Mom's family) last August (2010). It turned out to be NOT what we planned on. Jackson got sicker and sicker the closer we got to Bear Lake, but we just thought it was allergies because his eyes were SO runny and that's not normal for him. He was still a happy little boy and LOVED being there with all of the family. Here are some pics of the family at the yummy pizza place.





After dinner we rushed to the 2 small stores close to Bear Lake and they were both out of Benadryl. Everything was closing down so early there and Shawn barely made it to the Pharmacy in time. They only had a HUGE bottle of Benadryl so Shawn bought it! While Shawn was gone, Jackson had some fun with his cousins at the campground we were staying at. You can tell by the pics that he was sick with his runny nose and runny eyes. Poor little guy!




We went to our tent really early that night and gave Jackson some Benadryl but it did NOTHING for him. Instead he threw up twice. That's when we started packing up. We couldn't get him to go back to sleep. We drove around ALL night. It was awful! He finally fell asleep and we ended up pulling into a church parking lot and sleeping for a little bit. It wasn't for very long because I swear I could see the sun starting to rise even as we pulled in. Trying to sleep in the front seat of our jeep was NOT cool. Especially for Shawn who had a big steering wheel in the way.

It was sad to leave early but there was NO way we were going to stay and try for another night. We missed spending time with the Nordies who were there and also the Carlson's who we don't get to see nearly enough.

The good news to this story is that we stopped on our way out of town and got a famous Bear Lake raspberry shake. :) We want to go back again someday when we can enjoy the time there and actually play in the water a little bit. (AND eat more raspberry shakes!)

good-bye, ron

Dear Ron. We will miss you. We had to sell you. We’re moving to Washington soon and only want to take one car. Really, out of our two cars, you were our favorite. But … your A/C didn’t work, you loved to guzzle gas, and we got more money out of you than we would have gotten out of Kami. Sorry, Ron. We really did love you. You were fun to drive. You are WAY more “cool” than Kami is. Plus, we named you after our beloved friend, Ronald Weasley, and we really liked that about you. We hope you can understand. Enjoy St. George. It’s warm there. We’re jealous.

It was fun, Ron. We’ll miss you forever.

Love always,
PS and J

our little cowboy

Shawn and I have been talking lately about getting Jackson some COWBOY BOOTS. He loves boots and always wants to wear Shawn's. He even wore mine a couple weeks ago. We looked around at a couple places but didn't find any boots for our little cowboy. Shawn finally found some at AA Callisters so we all went there a couple nights ago. Jackson was in heaven!!! He loved it there! He wanted to touch all the horses and try on all the hats. While we were waiting for the salesperson to bring out the boots, Shawn and I were talking about how maybe we didn't want to pay that much money for boots for our little 2 1/2 year old. BUT that all changed the moment Jackson tried on the boots. You should have seen him! He was SO HAPPY!!!!! He was walkin' around like he was THE MAN, I tell you, THE MAN!!! He looked SO CUTE! We fell in love with this pair of boots on him and we could tell they were his favorite too. So, we bought them. And now we have a little cowboy! He LOVES his boots. When he saw them again the next morning he giggled with pure delight! It was adorable. Now he wants to wear them ALL THE TIME! Which is fine with us, because you know what, they are SO EASY for him to put on and take off ALL BY HIMSELF. We should have bought boots for him a long time ago. Here are some cute pics so that you can check out his boots ...

prayers

Jackson has been saying his own prayers lately. It’s so sweet. Shawn and I are always amazed at the things he says and actually remembers. Most of the time he just mentions his cousins and grandparents a lot - often more than once during the prayer. We try and help him remember Jesus but lately he’s more focused on remembering Santa Claus in his prayers. Haha! We’ll just have to keep working on that.

A few nights ago he wanted to say the prayer at dinner. This is how it went down. (By the way, Bella and Grant are his cousins. He never says their names individually. It is ALWAYS Bella-Grant.)

JACKSON: Heavenly Father. Bella-Grant, Bella-Grant, Bella-Grant, Bella-Grant, Bella-Grant, Bella-Grant, Bella-Grant. (NO LIE! I am NOT exaggerating!)

SHAWN: Thankful for Jesus.

JACKSON: Bella-Grant.

SHAWN: Thankful for this food.

JACKSON: Bella-Grant.

SHAWN: Please bless it.

JACKSON: Bella-Grant.

SHAWN: In the name of Jesus Christ ...

JACKSON: Bella-Grant.

SHAWN: Amen.

JACKSON: Bella-Grant. Amen.

Hahahahahahahahahahahahahahaha!!!!!!! Shawn and I were dying the whole time! It was hilarious! I don’t know what Lantz and Tennisa were doing to 2 of their kids that night, but Jackson felt like they needed LOTS of blessings! ;) Hee hee!

Here he is with his cousins.
Josh, Grant, Jackson, and Bella.

potty-training

I babysat my nephew, Josh, today. He is so great and Jackson adores him. Jackson had been calling his name all morning and telling him to come over to him. He says: “C’mere, Joshy, c’mere.” So cute, right?!! It’s adorable. And Joshy usually always goes over to him … except this time …

I was sitting at the computer, sending pics to my sister, when I noticed that Jackson was REALLY yelling for Joshy to “c’mere”, but Joshy was staying downstairs by me. I asked Josh what was going on with Jackson and he said: “Jackson is upstairs in the bathroom. He took off his pants AND his diaper and now he’s sitting on his toilet. He keeps telling me to come here but I don’t want to.” At this point, I am nervous, right? I’m feeling like Josh and I don’t want to go upstairs either. :) But I decided I better go check things out. The closer I got to the bathroom, the more I smelled THE POO. I was dreading what I was going to find! I went into the bathroom and luckily it wasn’t as bad as it was earlier this week. (THAT was really gross. Thanks to my man, Shawn, for cleaning it up while I gave Jack a bath.) First I saw a ball of poop (sorry, I don’t know how else to say it!) on the rug, and then I saw Jackson sitting on his little potty chair, PROUD AS CAN BE, saying: “Prize, Mama? Prize?” Haha! He wanted me to give him a prize for his POO making it to the bathroom RUG! Hahaha!!! Anyway, he of course had poo all over his little bum and all over the potty chair. It was gross, but again - NOTHING like earlier this week. All I could do was smile at him and tell him good job, but to PLEASE try and tell Mama before he goes upstairs and takes his diaper off. (Sigh.)

My point to this whole post is just that I don’t want to forget these moments. For some reason. I don’t know why! But also to say that I’m proud of my little boy for TRYING the whole potty-training thing. He did go pee a tiny little bit earlier this week and we all got SO excited! Let’s hope it gets better. I’m sure we’ll have many more accidents. It's worth it in the end though, right?!

I decided NOT to post any pictures this time. :)

girls camp - july

Ok, I KNOW this is WAY late. But I am slowly bringing my blog up to date. Just a little bit at a time. So, I was one of the Co-Camp Directors last year for girls camp. It was an AMAZING experience. The whole thing. Before, during, and after. I LOVED it and have seriously loved being in Young Women with all those amazing girls who I love so much. Michelle Lunceford was a Co-Camp Director with me. It was SO FUN to do that with her. I wouldn't have wanted to do it with anyone else. She is so great! I could go on and on and on about everything and this could turn into the longest blog post ever with all the pictures. BUT I'm going to try and not say very much, and just post a lot of pics instead. I don't ever want to forget anything from camp ... well ... maybe a few things! ;) The pictures brought back so many memories for me while I was looking at them so I think they'll just have to speak for themselves.

Day 1 - July 20, 2010
I got one hour and 20 minutes of sleep the night before girls camp. (Shawn too. He was amazing and helped me EVERY SINGLE STEP of the way with EVERYTHING I did to prepare for camp.) I was SO TIRED that morning! But I drank a coke on the way, so no worries. :) We had an amazing first day. And I just have to say that the girls make everything worth it. Even no sleep. If it wasn't for them, there is no way Michelle and I would have done all we did for camp. I love these girls! :)










The girls were always hanging out in this tree!










Beach-ball game!!









I'm so glad Jade put on this apron to help make tin-foil dinners! (Click to see it a little better.)





PRETTY NAILS!!!







S'mores and starbursts. Yummy!





Day 2 - July 21, 2010
We had an early breakfast and hike. During the middle of the hike, we stopped at "Little Nauvoo" for a devotional from the ward YW presidency. It was great!
















After the devotional, a few of us decided to be adventurous and take a different path back to our camp. Cattail Crossing. It was soooooo cool! And as you can tell by the pics, it is obviously the path less taken. :) But can I just say ... it was the best way ever! It was an adventure and it was sooo fun! I would do it again.












Here is a view of our campsite. Pretty, hu?

After the hike we all got ready to go to Crystal Hot Springs!!! It was SO MUCH FUN!!!! We all loved it. The girls AND the leaders. We weren't sure we were going to be able to pull it off but I'm so glad we did. It made camp so much more fun!






Poor Sarah hurt her ankle when she jumped into one of the pools. :(

The funnest part about Crystal Hot Springs was the SLIDE, baby!!! We had so much fun going down the slide AND watching each other come out at the end. (How do I have NO pictures of that? I need to get some from someone.) Also, we were a little bit naughty and decided to break the slide rules. We had all gone down all by ourselves so many times that we just NEEDED to go down in two's ... or three's ... or a big long train! We did get in a little bit of trouble but I have to admit it was the funnest part. Hee hee! (Am I a horrible leader???)















We were so sad to leave Crystal Hot Springs when it was time.


Here is the view just driving down the hill into our camp. So pretty!

We gave them time to shower after C.H.S. but some girls just wanted to take a nap. I don't blame them. I wanted a nap too!

We had a "spiritual breakaway" every day so that the girls could have alone time to study scriptures, do personal progress, pray, and to hopefully feel the Spirit. I love these pics cause the girls were SO TIRED after a morning of hiking and then a day at C.H.S.! Don't they look so cute?!




MMMMMM, banana boats! Have you ever had one of these? I had my first one at camp and it was DELISH!





Day 3 - July 22, 2010
This day we had a lot goin' on. We had breakfast, rest and relaxation, camp certification, a few leaders came up for the day, singing time, lunch, games, crafts, tadpole hunting, the bishopric came up for dinner, MY MAN came to stay the night to help take down camp the next day, skits, testimony meeting, and s'mores!










Here are our two Priesthood guys! We were so glad they were there. Especially when we thought we had a scary man invading our camp. THAT is a whole other story! :)





NINJA STRIKE! Ever played it? Crazy fun!





Crafts and skit planning. (They take those skits very seriously!!!)









We had fun with the JCL's, making dinner for our Bishopric.








I LOVE skits at girls camp! I was so impressed with the girls! Each year came up with a funny skit and a spiritual skit. They were SO GREAT! (Sorry the pics aren't so great as well. Our camera is NOT good.)










All of the YW leaders after our skit. (Alyce Binns was at camp too. She went home the day before.)

I can't believe we didn't take any pics of our amazing dinner OR our amazing Bishopric. We were just way too busy, I guess. Here are our cute girls after the testimony meeting that night. Isn't that last pic sweet?






Day 4 - July 23, 2010
Well. Last day. Not much to say about it other than we ate breakfast, then packed and cleaned up camp.





So, needless to say, CAMP WAS AMAZING!!! I had SO MUCH FUN with the girls and the leaders. (Our leaders tent was so fun! We were louder than the girls and they complained about us keeping them up at night. Haha! Isn't it supposed to be the other way around?) The girls are sooooo awesome and wonderful and I love them so much. I was amazed by them at camp. I learned so much from them. I love them and am so glad I got to be a Co-Camp Director! :)

I have to give a shout out and a big THANKS to Lantz & Tennisa and Shawn's parents for watching Jackson for us at the times Shawn was helping me at camp! WE LOVE YOU!!