Lately....some fun pics :)

SO MUCH TO UPDATE!!! Let's start with Halloween... Here is Jackson's "deep sea angler" fish pumpkin--isn't it so fun????! We never got the chance to carve the others. Maybe they will be Thanksgiving pumpkins :)

Gutting the pumpkin (Jackson thought it was DISGUSTING. Note the guts all over the floor...)



Our little lion headed into his toy "den" at Grandma & Grandpa's house.

LOVE this shot from the back...awesome mane, huh? SO cute. Our sensitive lion liked smelling the fake flowers before Trick-or-Treating.

He had such a cute black nose with whiskers...yeah, didn't last too long. Sweet little guy.

A walk around Provo Temple this week. This is the face he pulls when he tries to smell plants and flowers. Silly guy!


Lovin' the dirt! Of course...



Cool view of the back of the temple.


Ok...lately EVERYTHING is a phone for Jackson. He holds anything he can up to his ear and jabbers "ya ya ya ya ya". Here is a toy remote as a phone...as well as my cell phone.


"Hello, anybody there?" Another phone call down the hall.

Just a cute cheese with all those teeth!

My jewelry also doubles as a phone...he is holding one of my necklaces to his ear.

Well clearly I have spent too much time on the computer because Jackson knows how much I hate when he picks his nose, and he keeps coming up to me laughing with both pointer fingers up his nose. I think someone needs some attention. The things he does for attention though! LOL.

Here Fishy Fishy Fishy...

We had a VERY fun outing today to the Living Planet Aquarium in Sandy! Jackson loved seeing and imitating all the fish! His favorite part was the tide pool where he got to touch the stingrays. I couldn't believe how much he LOVED it, ha ha ha! We had to visit it multiple times. He also loved the adorable penguins. Check out some of these fun pictures! Hopefully we can go visit again soon with some cousins!

One of the best parts of the day, however, was when we were able to visit Matt at work for a few minutes and go to lunch. :) The Aquarium is right by his work! Yay!

The SHARK tank! :S

Jackson and Jonathan having a man-to-man discussion about the fish. So cute!

The beloved tide pool. The stingrays would flap their fins along the side of the pool, and it sounded like clapping. So Jackson decided he would clap back at them. It was pretty funny.

Some cool sea frog thing...

A close-up of a penguin. Obviously. LOL

More penguins.

Some really pretty baby rays that were in the same tank as the frog thing.

"Mama, I love these fish!"

30 steps...

It's been a month!? Wow. I know it's not Thanksgiving yet...but I sure have a lot to be grateful for!

Jackson is walking!!!! It is so dang cute to watch him "waddle" with his arms outstretched around the house. Today he walked from the kitchen to the family room--about 30 steps--all by himself! He was so proud, and I was delighted as well. He was even able to turn a corner in the process. Yay Jackson!!! He is also saying all kinds of things: kitty, hot, hat, light, "datson" for himself, daddy, mama, buh bye, turtle, bath, uh oh, and water. He makes all kinds of animal noises, loves to swing, and can point to his eyes, nose, and ears. Matt just taught him "knuckles" and "five".

I am absolutely LOVING being home with sweet Jackson, and I owe all my wonderful days watching Jackson grow and learn to my sweet husband. Thank you for working SO incredibly hard for us Matt! I don't know how you stay sane with your 14 hour days... Thanks!!!

Another thing I am grateful for...my mom is DONE with radiation! YAY MOM!!!! She made it! Now she has to start an intensive therapy program for 5 years...ugh. Hang in there! We are proud of you!

Well, I have a bunch more to be grateful for...but there is a little buddy pulling my arm to take him to play the piano...so...this post will have to end here. :) Now let's just hope it isn't an entire month until the next post. Ha ha ha!

Pictures from Jackson's Party

We had a good time celebrating Jackson's party, thanks to all of you that were able to make it.

Jackson not so sure in these pictures what to do.

Trying to figure it out.

The awesome stuff Jen put together for his party.

A close up picture of the awesome cake that tasted AMAZING!!!

Pictures of the Kitchen finally done!!!

We were going to do tile in our kitchen, but that would come with some cutting of the kitchen cabinets that we just got finished. So we decided we would try to do something else, so we were looking for quite some time, and we weren't sure if we would find anything. Then while looking at Home Depot we saw some stuff we thought might work, so we bought it. Turned out that we loved it and it matched perfectly with our floor and the new color of red.

Welcome Autumn!

We sure can't believe that the leaves are already changing on Y Mountain...and the air is cool enough that Matt doesn't need the swamp cooler running ALL night long (ha ha ha)! So much has happened in the past little while, and we sure have been terrible about updating! So here is a collaborative update of the past couple months:

1. Jackson turned 1!!!!!!!! We have wonderful pictures (thanks to Matt & Smash) that we need to post of his "Fish" Party. Thanks to everyone who came to celebrate! Jackson got so many fun gifts and clothes. Plus, we all enjoyed a huge fish shaped cake, fish cupcakes, goldfish, and Swedish Fish. I even ventured out and made the fish cupcakes out of fondant. (Not sure I will ever do that again...lol!)

2. Little Jackson had an allergic reaction to milk and cheese. :( So, he is now off milk & cheese for a while. Unfortunately, this reaction required us to have him tested for allergies. Poor guy had to get a tube of blood taken from his arm--which was not a pleasant experience for him or mom to say the least. He has had quite the bruise in his left arm as a battle wound. Anyway, results concluded that he has a peanut allergy. Darn it! So since we don't know how severe it is...we had to get an epi pen. Can't wait to start reading the labels on EVERYTHING!!!! I am so so so so hoping that he grows out of this. :(

3. More Jackson updates. He is standing! No walking yet, but stands up everywhere! He is also saying all kinds of things like: dada, mama (finally!), light, hot, ball, Jackson (only the vowels mostly), imitates some things we say such as don't, thank you, & all done. He also LOVES to shake his head no at us. He knows exactly what it means, too! The little stinker... He loves to imitate a fish whenever he sees a picture of one, a stuffed animal, or a real one. He is also obsessed with Elmo. He is getting so big, there is nothing better than having him in our home.

4. Matt got a new job in South Jordan! He is Assistant Manager, but the branch does not have a current manager--so, he is actually "acting Manager". It is wonderful, and he is enjoying it! He even has a very nice HUGE office. Ha ha ha! Jackson and I have been able to go visit a couple times, it is sure a much slower location than Walmart. :)

5. BYU started up again...so Matt is super busy with new classes and homework. We are sure lucky to have a Daddy who works so hard for us! I honestly don't know how he does it...work + school. He is doing half of his classes in Provo, and the other half at the Salt Lake Center. Some nights he doesn't even get home until 11 PM. Poor guy! Thanks for all your hard work babe!

6. I QUIT MY JOB!!!!!!!!! Because of Matt's new work and school schedule, I am no longer able to work. Other than missing the people & friendships, I haven't missed being at the office ONCE! It is the best to finally be a "stay at home" mommy & wife. Nothing better!

7. Along with quitting my job, I also got released from my calling at church. What am I going to do with all this extra time--ha ha!? I wish they would have let me serve a little longer...I still feel like there are things I left hangin. Serving the sisters in my ward was an absolute blessing, and wonderful experience! I will miss it, and having such a close relationship with my fabulous counselors.

8. I guess one of the things that will be filling up my time will be the Jenny Phillips Choir. I auditioned in August and actually got in!!! I can't wait to start performing at her firesides throughout the year. It will be a marvelous experience, and the music is gorgeous!

9. We finished our kitchen project (I can't really take credit, it was all Matt!). Along with the gorgeous cabinets, we also painted the walls a beautiful red and put in new dark flooring. I love it! It looks like a whole new room!

10. We did our annual river run in Wyoming--it was so much fun! The water was so low, it was a little scary. Everyone was safe, and only my dad had an "out of boat" experience. We had a surprise visit to the ER one night when Jackson came down with the croup. Oh the adventures of camping with a baby!

11. We have had a lot of family fun lately with Labor Day, picnics, and even Parker's baptism! We can't wait for the arrival of a new nephew here shortly!

12. Special tribute to my mom who finished day 15 of radiation this week!!!!! 1/3 of the way done!!!!! :) What an amazingly strong example she is, she hasn't slowed down a bit! Still teaching and doing everything like normal.

Ok...one day I will get some pics posted...lol! Hope everyone is enjoying their weekend!

Our Kitchen

So Jen and I have been trying to figure out a way we could update our kitchen for pretty cheap. We thought maybe we could try to use a stripper and strip the stain out and try to stain them a darker color. After that attempt failed we decided we would have to paint them. We didn't know if we could paint them a darker color, or if we should paint them a lighter color. So Jen was watching KSL one day and they had someone on who had just finished a remodel on her kitchen for under $300. We were interested and found that she had used a bead board wallpaper on her cupboard doors and painted them. She also used a chocolate brown glaze on top of the paint and wallpaper bead board so we thought we would give it a try. Here are some of the pictures from when we moved in and the color of the cabinets that we didn't absolutely love.

And now to our new updated colors. We can't decide on a tile yet, but we are thinking a slate style will look the best, and we are trying to decide if we should update the paint to like a red or something a little darker so it will off set the lighter cabinets and appliances.

The following picture is of the shelves that I decided I would make that would go on both sides of our cupboards so we could have some additional shelf space.

And finally, one of my favorite parts was the fact that we were finally able to put in some crown molding to hide all the spacing that was there from when they hurried the process and skipped some steps in building our condo.

Finally we finished Jackson's room. We were able to paint the shelf, and Jen did the letters thanks to our visit to the Wood Connection. Below are some pictures.

SO MUCH TO UPDATE!!!!!!

Here comes another HUGE update! We have so many fun pictures to share of our little guy! Crazy to think he is already 9 1/2 months old. We have had loads of fun lately as he has started learning all kinds of new things.

Here is a sweet shot of him attempting to crawl.
He still only goes backwards.

We went to feed the ducks at BYU. They have such a fun pond with turtles and baby ducklings! It was a blast!

For Memorial Day we went up North for a BBQ with the fam. Sweet cousin Dylan even came! Jackson loved checking out Toby (the dog) while we were there, too.

Memorial Day was also Jackson's FIRST haircut! Thanks to Aunt Stacey for the awesome job! Here are some fun shots of the process, as well as the awesome entertainers we had to keep Jackson happy. Thanks Myers!

All finished....one handsome guy! (Well...3 in this pic!)