Easter Morning with Jax

This first picture is my favorite picture from the Easter morning festivities. Jax LOVES this big soft dog. He was so excited; that was fun.  Poor kid loves dogs, but has been "attacked" (not bitten, but jumped upon and knocked over while mean dogs bark their head off---don't worry, all the while the owner reassures me how nice the dog is...as he is attacking my 15 month old...dry heave, if only Justin had been there to kill the dogs...) at least 2 different times, off the top of my head--and he is only 23 months old. And there has been even more dog "encounters" that have been less severe, but still scary. As a result, he is now more cautious and loves them from a distance. So a stuffed one is right up him and his mom's alley.

 I have a really nice camera and can't figure why these are grainy...I think it might be because they where taken in "sport" mode. It's the only way to take pictures of Jax. But here he is with his first egg. 4 jelly beans inside.

 It takes him a sec to figure out how to open it...he doesn't even know there is candy inside as of yet.

 He knows that these "chocolate balls" are candy though, he was excited about that.

Note to self: This year I bought the CHEAPEST candy ever (I spent $3). I tasted some of his candy that morning--I couldn't even eat it. And I'm 9 months pregnant. Seriously Tawny, next year, please by candy with actual ingredients. And/or candy that is over a dollar. Less is not more.

 

Chewin' on a jelly beans and wantin' more.

 
 
 
 
 
 
 

  YUM! Dried, hard, colored sugar. Thanks Mom!

In light of what the holiday is all about, my parents always did a church-y theme Easter for me when I was growing up. Our baskets always contained things you could find at Deseret Book or something. OR my amazing mom would make us matching dresses with gloves and hats to match--you know just more reverencey, church things. What a GREAT thing to do. Justin and I are going to try and do that with our kids---does a stuffed dog count as reverent?? It's just quite and soft and nice AND it gives you a good feeling... Anyway, the other thing Jax got was 2 "church books". He is coloring in one shown below. He really likes it.

That book that he is coloring in is really cool. It is all fabric and its called Jesus Loves Me or something similar and was $6 and you let him color on it as much as you want and then you just wash it by hand or in the wash and its all ready to color again.

The sucker was a BIG hit. I found it in our cupboard. It's a

tootsie pop.
 

And don't worrry, I threw away 3/4's of his candy when he went upstairs. He ate a TON of it though. It made me feel so bad because I knew how gross it was...and I provided it for him...and he thought it was good...

My big regret of the day is not getting a family picture. That would have been nice to have. In our defense, our camera died.

My dad took some really cute pictures of the Easter egg hunt my parents had at their house later in the day for the 3 grandkids. I hope i get those at some point. :)

Church is always nice on Easter. And it was this year too. Our ward choir did this Easter Cantata thing...that was interesting. But seriously, what better thing to celebrate with a holiday than Christ's last day's on this earth and the miraculous things that took place.

As far as the commercial egg/bunny thing--that's lost on me...but I'm glad there is a holiday none the less.

Gause Update

Jax used to call me Nauny.  Because he couldn't say his "T"'s. (He called me Tawny) It was SO cute. He would yell for me and say "NAUNYY!!" It was really funny.

Anyway,

Now, I have graduated from Tawny to Mommy. But it's plural. And it's REALLY cute too. It sounds like "Momiez". And he usually say's it really fast; I think he's going to be a fast talker like his mom. One of my favorite things to hear is him saying my name, that and anything nice--I shouldn't try and narrow it down. :) But I want to have on record that Jax says: "See dat? Momiez?" all the time. And I love it.

Remember how we have, in a word, "construction" going on in all parts of Utah County right now? Well, Jax LOVES looking at all the construction--it doesn't get old with him. "Diggers", "tractors", "trucks", and "BIG trucks" are always around in in excess. It never fails, every time we are in the car and drive by construction (which is basically every time we get in the car--you can't escape it) he'll yell and point, "Woah! See dat? Momiez? Tractor! See dat?" It's the only good thing about the construction for me. He loves it. Bless his little heart. Sometimes there is just so much to look at and he just points and talks and gets really excited, "See dat?! Momiez?! BIG Truck" and "truck" is always said a few tones lower than the rest of the sentence. Because it's so big of course. :)

 Jax is liking me more as a mom. Or as a person. Or something. Cause get this, the other day, I had to leave to Young Women's on a Wednesday night,(like I do, every week) and Justin said when Jax finally noticed I was gone (he was watching the movie Cars when I left--which means he wouldn't know if there was a cow in the room--Cars gets his FULL attention.)  he was just running and running, upstairs and down calling "Momiez? Momiez?! Momiez!!" and THEN he started BAWLING and was inconsolable! Can you believe it. He loves me. Yay! Not "yay" that he was crying, but "yay" that he showed that we was sad and missed me because I wasn't there. Lots of times he couldn't care less.

But can I just say: I REALLY have appreciated that he is not a clingy baby, happy day for me! He is SO easy that way (so good in nursery or whenever he ever has to be babysat by anyone)--and SO hard by the same token (running away mainly, and not being scared of strangers when he runs away, etc..). But seriously i am grateful he hasn't been clingy. It makes life a lot easier in that sense.

I know it looks like he is in tears in this one--that's because he was...he really wanted to see the picture on the screen on the back of the camera BEFORE we took the picture...that doesn't work. But he looks gorgeous when he cries, so it doesn't matter that much :)

Remember how Aunt Chanel is the most amazing human...she is. We LOVE her. She came with us (Jax and me--Justin doesn't go anywhere but school and work--and those don't include us.;) to DSW and watched Jax while I tried on EVERY shoe. Then we went to lunch. GREAT day. She has more tolerance and patience in her baby finger than I have in my whole body. Jax is always smitten.

 Here are some of Jaxtons very cool tricks. He was p-r-e-t-t-y impressed with himself, because, lets face it, these are some pretty impressive moves...

Also, please note that Jaxton's toenails are painted. His toenails and/or his fingernails are always painted. Courtesy of Chanel, Arianne and me. He really likes it. :) We try our best to do manly colors like shades of blue, but sometimes pink is the only way to go. :)

 This one on the bottom is my favorite because you can kind of see the strain in his face--he was trying SO HARD to arch and lift his leg so high in the back; he thought he was pretty studly. And rightly so.

Speaking of sleep. 4 weeks to go before sleep becomes an elusive fantasy...eek. Despite that sad fact, we are getting really, really, excited for the arrival of the little cute creature trying to exsit my tummy the wrong way!

 Note to self: This pregnancy is SO much more painful in the 3 trimester then Jax. Good greif, I feel like my stomach is the cage for a wild animal. Lots of really amazing searing burning sensations. Lots of really amazing youch. Also, as of last tuesday, I've gained 38lbs...Not too bad when compared with 60 from last time, but not to good when you compare it to the average women. Whatev.

We need to settle on a name asap!

And the update on my over worked husband is that he is still very much over worked. He has worked almost 60 hrs a week (6 day work weeks) the last 3 weeks. And good news! Wells Fargo doesn't pay overtime for Saturdays! SWEET! Sign us up for THAT! AND school is kicking his butt. But don't worry, he's kicking right back--anytime after 10pm. Between school, soccer, and work, the kid has been getting terrible sleep.

AND we've been trying to buy/look for a house and all that that implies, it's not UN-time consuming. AND much of his "free-time" is taken up by him watching Jax while I do YW stuff which can take up a ton of the day on Sundays and every Wednesday night. Poor guy supports me with my calling.
BUT there is light at the end of the tunnel:

-He only has 1 more final to take on Monday! and one more paper...and one more presentation...and a packet to turn in, and then thats it!...for this semester. Summer semester starts 2 weeks later. One 3 credit class and one 1 credit class. AND THEN...He'll GRADUATE. and that's really the end of that.

-His work is hiring another banker so that Justin doesn't have to work like a phsyco...but they have a 3 week training in SLC--so not imediate relief, but it's coming.
-We are probably moving soonish so I wont be YW President for a ton longer.

So maybe life will "normalize"(what does that mean?) for him in the near future...And I'll get my husband back. Oh wait, I DO still HAVE him, I'll just be able to SEE him. :)

What a trooper.

Long update. You are a trooper if you are still reading.

Jumping on the Tramp

 Thank goodness for my dad and his camera skills! This picture post is to make up for all the pictures i never took of Jax on the Trampoline, his most favorite place. Shame on me. Sorry he doesn't have any pants on...

oop, nope, I'm not.

 These top ones are of him running on the tramp--he thinks running on the tramp is really funny. I think he usually thinks he's trying to run away from someone, which is always really funny in his book. :)

And now for the main event: Jumping!! His FAVORITE! He is SO good at jumping, so abnormally good. I want to get him in a Baby Jumping Competition, but they are not real and don't exists. Which is a real shame, cause he'd win.:)

 I like how on a lot of these he looks like he is just in the air...you cant really tell that he's jumping--watch for his shadow and you can.

Serious face on some of these--gotta get that height! 

This is cute, look how high he's jumping, he's jumping to one of his favorite special people...

It's his Mai-mai!

 

 Basically, this kid doesn't get enough attention or loves...can you tell?

Last pic, he likes to do the "land on your bum" jumps--and he doesn't fall backwards when he lands, cause he's pro.

 Ya, we think he's amazing!

Good thing I'm having another baby (distraction) and pronto, cause I cant get over this kid; and I think it might be getting to his head...or maybe just mine...or both.:)

Throwing, too fun.

As mentioned before, Jax will throw anything and everything, at anything and everything. We've been trying to teach him when and where and with what throwing is appropriate. He is getting better...kind of. 

Here are some pictures of him throwing completely appropriately...which can be rare... :)

These pictures also show how seriously Jax takes his throwing. It is serious business. Just don't get in his way. :)

He's "ready" to throw.

This is a "wind up"

This is his "follow through"

Here he is throwing straight up into the air. It doesn't always go "straight up"...look out.:)

I just think this is cute, every time he hears an airplane he try's to show it to me. Sadly, you can hear those things a lot better than you can see them.
He sure is fun to watch. :)

oops.

Jax is 22 months and still has very little hair; but it still needs to be trimmed every so often or he starts to look like a rag-a-muffin. 

It's weird, he has hair, but he doesn't. It's curly but it's straight. It's thin, but it's thick. It's blonde but it's red. or light brown. Anyway, he always looks a bit sharper with a trim. And it's a fairly easy process since he doesn't fight it; it might be one of the only things he doesn't fight us on. And that boy can FIGHT. :) I think it is because he see's his dad cutting (he uses clippers) his own hair so often that it makes him feel like a "big boy" to be able to do what dad is doing. In any case, it makes it nice.

This was his 2nd official hair cut; maybe 3rd?? And seriously he doesn't really have hair, so like I said, it's weird. So we are giving him his cut and Justin gets out the sissors to trim around his ears and the back of his neck...his ears went great, the back of his neck...not so much. Jax moved exactly when he clipped the scissors and Justin took off a good chunk of hair right down to the near skin area. It looked bad/halarious. So of course you "try and fix it", got this buzzer thing, it was shorter than we thought and anyway...the result was this:

 

Notice how the left side is missing hair? We were tempted to just do the deed and replicate it on the other side so that he could have a mullet of sorts, and then Justin mentioned steps...in the end we decided to be boring and just leave it; that way people know that we messed up. We love that.:)

While we are here...

This is Jaxton's new favorite thing to do (play with water in the sink). It always ends with water out of the sink, and on the floor/counter/Jax, but sometimes that "end" can take up to 20-25 minutes to get to...Do you know how much I can do in 20 minutes? Not as much as you'd think, but you get the idea. :) So I let him play more often then not. He LOVES it.

And while we are STILL here... 

This is Jax in his Sunday cloths on his way to church. Jax really doesn't mind church. I mean, sacrament meeting is hard; the kid has a lot of energy. It can be rough, but the awesome fact that makes it all bearable for him is that he has nursery after sacrament meeting. And he knows it. He LOVES nursery. He has always loved nursery. I even put him in nursery at 16 1/2 months without telling--I told the leaders he was 17 months and I think they knew I was lying. But seriously, at that point Jax was just too hard for me at church, I couldn't deal anymore, so I said that I wanted him to start to "get comfortable" before I brought him in at 18 months--to "come get me if there is a problem." And then I walked away really fast, before they could stop me. He has NEVER been brought to me, never had a problem, never cried, never anything. He has loved it ever since the beginning of time. In sacrament meeting, after anyone sits down after speaking or singing or praying or anything he always looks at me and hopefully says "nursery?? nursery??" And I always have to say, "not yet"; but then when I say "yes!", he freaks out and makes a b-line to the nursery room. He knows where it is and can go there by himself. We know this because one time I wasn't going fast enough for him (we sit in the front at church and the isle's tend to get backed up)--so me and my preg self was stuck at the front of the chapel waiting for the crowds to dissipate, Jax took off before I could grab him and went in between, around, and under legs/dresses and was gone. I semi freaked out just because I couldn't see him and didn't know where he was going (the kid has NO bounds--so if there was an outside door open, he would just be gone and be hit by a car in the middle of the road), so I had Justin run around and find him. (He's just a tiny bit faster than me when I'm pregnant...:)Justin found Jax in the nursery room playing. I thought it was so funny.

Anyway, he makes life fun. What a goob.:)

Ramblings of my mind.

Throughout my ramblings are some cute photo's of my sweet little guy. He could see himself in my phone (cool iphone feature) as I took these pictures so it was pretty funny to see the faces he kept doing. I got the most DARLING video of him (again while he was watching himself--this made it so funny) but the formatting of the video on my phone doesn't mesh with our computers--basically nothing "mesh's" with our computer; so pictures will have to suffice. He said all of his animal sounds in the video. So cute. So gifted. :)

-As of 2 day's ago I’m 30 weeks pregnant.  Already I’ve gained 30lbs… and that’s if you weigh me in the morning…and if your going by what I weighed at my 29 week appointment...:)

  --Acid reflux has taken over my life. But if that is as bad as it gets I really can’t complain. Remember how I don’t throw-up when I’m pregnant. I think I am pretty darn lucky to have pretty darn good pregnancies. But shoot, tums sure get old...

--We are suddenly moving.  Like, by April 15^th moving.  Not just moving, but trying to buy a house (we’ve always rented). Not just any house, a house under $115,000. Have you ever seen a house for this price? We have. Like 30 of em’.  You can probably imagine, it’s pretty rough viewing.  It makes you want to be in really clean places and to never have an animal in your house/yard.  It gives you a real appreciation for soap, among other things…

 --Mortgage insurance on FHA loans goes up on April 15^th. That is why we want to have a house picked out by then. That is in like, 4 weeks.  We didn’t realize this until we met with our loan guy (who is amazing btw, if anyone wants one, we have one) 2 weeks ago. The main reason we are buying is because it is going to be cheaper than renting. The other main reason I because we feel like it’s the right thing for us to do right now.

 --We have an offer on a house that I would LOVE to have. But it is a short sale, which = long process...cause it’s not even bank approved yet. We don’t have long (4 wks, remember). So my dreams will probably be dashed (and "dreams" is not just a manner of speaking, I literally dreamed about that house last night, like a long dream, we got the house in my dream...). I obsess over this house. I’m hoping it’s the pregnancy hormones. I’m SO stressed we aren’t going to be able to get it (reality, we probably won’t, more stress, more stress) and that we won’t find one greater than or equal to for the price. Sad day. Then we’ll have to move into one of these marijuana houses where they owned huge rottweiler dogs who lived in and destroyed all cabinets, closets, and doors; and let them pee and poo all over the carpet and appliances and then microwaved small cats for them to eat. (I’m not being dramatic, you need to see these houses—or at least just smell them to know what I’m talking about.)

--I’m back working 12hrs a week at Squire and Company for tax season (Wednesdays and Thursdays from like 12-6). That is kinda nice. Nice to get the extra money and nice to have a little change/break from the mom routine. Nice to be doing something that can be measured. To be working with paper...:) My mom/family watches Jax; this makes jax very happy. So everyone is winning here.

--Justin is amazing. I’m freaking out over this house situation; truly, truly, SO stressed. And he has been so level headed. I know he’s stressed but he is sure handling it waaaaay better than me.  He is good at letting me just vent to him about it. He has also been working a lot lately, like overtime and stuff, not to mention his 14 credit hours at UVU, and still is being very calm. (But please babe, for the love, come home on time tonight..!) Unlike me who sits at home all day with Jax and freaks out. He is a good one. I love him.

 Jax is waving "bye, bye" to you in this picture.

My mom gave him those cute Elmo jam-jams. Jax has no idea who Elmo is. I'm such a bad parent.:)

I can't believe Jax is 22 months old...

I can't believe I can love him so much.

Please let me brag...

I seriously need to brag about my child a little bit; specially since it seems i never get around to posting pictures or movies of his amazing-ness (not my fault--our computer is a dinosaur, it takes ages). So i have to use pictures from my phone that I email to myself, quicker that way (still takes a bit, so it's really hard to motivate myself). But I can't load the video from my phone cause, again, the computer is a dinosaur/just really stupid. And lets be honest, i've kinda stoped taking pictures of Jax the last little bit--i'm bad, but he's never sitting still and when i pull out a camera he either runs away or wants to watch old video's of himself---doesn't really pose for a picture well. But i need to do better, or i know i'll hate myself one day. :(

Anyway, just wanted it documented that Jaxton is very impressive in the following areas:

Jumping. He can jump, quite high, with both feet leaving the ground, running or standing. Like a stud. He can also jump off high-ish things (high for him). I've seen him jump, by himself, jump off of things that are like 18in tall, lands in a perfect squat. If i hold his hand he can jump off of oober high things. He LOVES jumping.

Running. This kid runs and runs and runs. And you know how kids have short little legs? Those short little legs move around and around themselves so fast; it always makes me smile when he is running "fast"; cause he looks like this speedy little tiny man. And remember how I'm 29 weeks pregnant? Picture me and my added 30lbs of preg weight chasing this tiny little man. If he makes me chase him i get petty mad/self conscience. My biggest fears are about Jax in a parking lot; he has darted before and I'm not quick enough--nightmare, i cant let go of him.

Throwing. Like abnormal accuracy and force behind the balls this kid throws. I get comments all the time about it. It really is impressive. I've got to get it on video. Not that i could load it onto this blog....grrr. He LOVES to throw anything and everything and he will throw it HARD. He has quite a few times thrown a ball hard against the wall and had it come back and hit him hard in the face; it doesn't really faze him. Poor kid. :) He loves it.

Kicking. And this little dude has been kicking since he could walk; he kinda stopped for awhile at like 16-18 months but picked it up again in full force. And he kicks HARD. It's so cute. He has been doing this thing where he like "winds up", backs up from the ball a ways and then runs at it and kicks it; he does a really good job. :) We're hoping he grows up loving soccer...:)

Anyway; this kid deserves lots of credit, his lame-o mom doesn't talk about all of his coolness enough. He is really so impressive. Keep in mind the cute kid is only 21 months. 

I love him; this new baby is going to rock his world.

Watch this.

My cute/amazing friend Olivia had this cool video on her baby blog, just watched it; totally worth your time if your interested. It is meant for newer parents, but I think fun/great info for anyone.