the JACKSON family

Family Date Night

2011-07-31T22:11:00.000-07:00

On Friday, July 15, we decided to do a family date night. We all went to the library together, I haven't taken the boys in a really long time. We signed them up for the little summer reading program, even though it only had two weeks left, but hey they each got a free kids meal at Del Taco. We then went to Brunswick Zone to go bowling. It's been a long time since I've been bowling and holy cow it's expensive. I even had a Groupon, which I could have bought 4 not just 1 to make it cheaper. Anyways, it's one of those things that I have a whole new appreciation for my parents taking our whole family bowling growing up, I sure hope it was cheaper. I need to go to the Ajo Bowling Lanes again, I used to love getting their hot pickles and a Shirley Temple. Besides all the price stuff, we had a lot of fun and I'm glad we did it. The kids loved it. Kade was telling everyone he was going bowling, and then after he would tell people, very proudly, he went bowling. You can also tell I haven't been in a long time because I still have this picture of Ajo Lanes where you have to write to keep score, which I never knew how, and you had the big blown up things for the bumpers. Brunswick was so high tech for me. These metal bars would automatically come up for the kids turn and then go down for ours, even though I needed it desperately. Then after your ball hit the pins, it would come up automatically on the screen and keep score. I know this is all old school for you guys now, but I was impressed, it made it really easy and fast. It also laughed at you if you got a gutter, which I got a couple and Kade pointed it out to me "Mom, look, they're laughing at you." Thanks Kade. As you can tell, our scores are super low, the boys even beat me, but we bonded and that's all that matters! After our game, we checked out their game zone. As we were about to leave, a worker or maybe a manager came and gave each of the boys 3 cards and Glen and I each 1 card that had at least $2 and maybe up to $5 on each one. It was awesome, the boys loved it because they were begging us to let them play the games. We used 3 cards and decided to save the others for a Tuesday night when the games are half off. The boys got their tickets and picked a little prize. Kade picked a skull ring, which he loves, I think it looks scary, but oh well. Bryson got candy. After that we went out to dinner and the boys did very well in a restaurant, we don't take them very often. And just to remind people, check out restaurant.com before you go out to eat because I can almost always find a code to get a $25 certificate for $2-$4. It's great. Anyways, sorry this is long, but we had a great family night!

Teagan did awesome and stayed in his carseat happy the entire time!

Bryson was so cute! His balls were rolling sooo slow we told him to start blowing so the ball would make it down. Then he would get so excited after the ball hit the pins!

Family Update

2011-07-10T00:26:00.000-07:00

Last month, I just started meeting together once a month with my sisters and cousins to do "Power of Moms". Our assignment was to do 3 new things each week that we've been wanting to do (little things, phone calls, whatever). So this was on my list. In my mind, it's really only been a month since I've posted on my blog. But in reality, since it's been over a year, I'm only going to attempt to do a brief update on our family.

Glen holding on for dear life at the Grand Canyon, or just practicing his acting skills. Just like all of us, Glen is staying busy with family, church calling, and work. Beginning of June he spent a week with 12-13 year olds on a 50 mile hike at Greens Peak. He was supposed to come home Saturday, but surprised me and got home Friday night, only because they had been evacuated because of the fires. He returned with several blisters on each foot and limped around for a couple days. But I know it was worth it, he LOVES the outdoors!!! His hobby the last few months has been our little garden. We picked lots of squash, zucchini, radishes, tomatoes, green onions, basil, carrots, and beets. Out of the huge green bean plant, we've only picked a hand full, and out of the hundreds of blossoms on our cucumber plants, only one grew and it tasted horrible. We've picked a couple little red bell peppers and one cantaloupe and we have another growing. With the summer heat, our squash and zucchini have died, and our garden doesn't look as green anymore, but we are still picking a few things. Here is some pictures when they are full grown (before they started dieing). It has been really fun for the kids to go out and see the progress and pick. Anyways, enough about the garden. Glen is actually on his way home from Clay Springs. He was there a couple days to help his dad clear out the house there. He took Kade and Bryson so they could enjoy the cool air and run around outside and get dirty! I've got Tim and Cara's kids here spending the night so Cara can stay in the hospital with the baby. Kade will be so excited when he sees them here.

As for me, I love having 3 little boys and a husband who comes home to wrestle them to get out their energy! It's been about 2 years now I've been working with the Wolves in Cub Scouts and absolutely love it. My new goal has been to train for the St. George Marathon in October. I'm on week 5 of a 16 week program, and it's been a killer. But once the marathon is over, I know I'll be glad I did it! I'm excited my sister Janae and sister-in-law Sarah will be doing it with me!

I don't know where to even start on my kids. I've missed writing so many cute things, but I guess for now I'll do the present.

Kade is 4, and can't wait until his birthday on September 17. He keeps telling me he wants a black watch. He has been my master artist. He loves to draw and color, which has been a life saver for me because he will sit at the table for long periods of time just drawing. It has been so cute to see what he comes up with. When he was in our little joy school trade and when I pick him up from primary class, he is always the last one coloring and I have to pull him away. He likes to color every inch of the paper and is very detailed. Lately, he has also been learning how to read. My sister Esther told me about this book, "Teach Your Child to Read in 100 Easy Lessons" by Siegfried Engelmann. I love it! It's short simple lessons and I like the way they teach it. I also didn't feel so overwhelmed on how I was going to teach him and what are all the materials I would need. It's just one book and they tell you everything to say to your child so you don't confuse them. Anyways, it's been working for us. He's on Lesson 23. At the end of 22 he could read "That is a seed. See a ram eat it." I'm so proud of him!

Bryson is 2. He'll be 3 on August 8th. He is my tease, but he's so darn cute. He's got this laugh that is kind of deep and mischievous. It makes me laugh every time. He may be half the size of Kade or other cousins that are over, but he will jump in wrestling them anyway. He's a tough cookie. He's also become a great swimmer this summer. We've spent lots of hours in the pool because we didn't have AC until July 1 ("Oh, happy day!"), and so he has been practicing. Even when he was a baby, he loved jumping off the side into the pool. We still have to be near him, but he can swim a good 10-15 feet. He will pull his head out to breathe. Our next goal with Bryson is to get him potty trained!!! Any suggestions?

Teagan is 8 months. He's got blonde hair and weighs 20 pounds now. He's our "Teagers" or "Tuggers".This squishy boy has brought our family so much joy! He was born November 4, 8 lbs. 9oz. I'll have to post the birthing story later. Kade and Bryson are so good with him. I have caught Bryson trying to wrestle him and Kade carrying him down the stairs, but they also watch for little pieces on the floor, and put in his binkie, and get me diapers and wipies. They have been great helpers. As Glen has been gone with the boys, I found out it's actually harder to watch Teagan by himself, when the boys are here they entertain him. But I did have a chance to have a little Teagan mommy time. He's been crawling on all fours for about a month now and he picks up the tiniest pieces. The last couple weeks he's been pulling himself up. He has 7 teeth and likes to use them on everything, he's even grinding. He's a smilin' cuddly boy! I just love him!

Here's some random cute pictures of the boys over the last month.

One night Kade decided to be a pirate and came up with his whole outfit. I thought it was pretty good.

Bryson at the 4th of July flag raising.

Mud Bath!

2010-05-08T20:26:00.000-07:00

On Thursday evening, I was watering the plants and cleaning our little backyard and the boys started playing in the dirt and carrying over water to make mud. Pretty soon I took off Kade's clothes and just let them have some boy fun! I loved just watching them spread mud all over each other.

Gila Temple

2010-05-08T15:31:00.000-07:00

Last weekend, I was so grateful we were able to get away to go to the Gila Valley Temple open house. We went up Friday evening and made it to the Spring Sing with Janae and Julianne; Matt was in the choir. I love going to those, they always do such a great job. Janae and Matt let us stay in their little home and gave us their bedroom; they slept in the living room. We fell in love with their home. It was just so cute and cozy and homey. We stayed up with them and Julianne and Connor (friend living with Uncle Wick and Aunt Lynn) playing Dominion and eating chips and salsa. The next morning, we woke up to a hot breakfast Matt made; waffles, hashbrowns, eggs, strawberries. It was so good and nice of them to do that. Thank you Janae and Matt, we had so much fun! Kade was crying and really did not want to leave their house. Later that morning we went to the open house. It was so beautiful, the chandeliers were amazing. I'm so glad we took the time to go. I was amazed at how well the kids did. When Kade saw the chandelier in the Celestial room he called it a Christmas tree because of the way it's big at the bottom and then comes to a point. It was cute. Bryson, of course, loved looking at the water in the baptismal font. When Kade first saw the temple he first pointed out Angel "Boroni"! He loves pointing him out, and no matter how hard we try, we can't get him to say Moroni. The "M" words I can think of right now is "Boroni, Byreel, and Balaya."

Random March/April Pictures

2010-05-08T14:59:00.001-07:00

We were in Ajo for my birthday, and to help clean my parents yard, and for the men to help with the rodeo that night. It was so fun to have lots of siblings there too; Julianne, Nelson and Kelsey and Esther and Jesse, Carolyn came for the day, and Janae and Matt came the next day. We had so much fun. And of course, my mom made my birthday so special and reminded me of the good old days. She sent me back to bed so she could make a hot breakfast, then my dad led everyone in singing to me in bed. She made my favorite cake, hawaiian layered cake, mmmm! It was awesome! Glen surprised me and gave me the "Dominion" game! Which I really wanted and love to play! On the box he wrapped it in, he put "Love, Glen, Kade, Bryson, and BABY!" And that's how we announced #3!!!

This was in Ajo, Kade wanted to get dressed and this is what he came out wearing; Bryson's clothes! Too funny. He's wearing the shirt when we announced for Baby Bryson. It's actually been kind of funny the past few times we've gone out of town and Kade goes to get his clothes, he'll come back with Bryson's clothes because he remembers himself wearing them, so he thinks they're his.
He looks like he just woke up.
Bryson, Konnor, Kade, Kaitlyn, and Anika playing in the little pool.
Dancing with Caylin and Dallin.
I don't know if he was sleep walking or what, but we had already put the boys to bed and later when we went upstairs to go to bed we found Kade on the top of the stairs asleep.

Bryson playing with the marble tower.
I had made garden boxes with the scouts earlier that day, and so Kade wanted to make one with daddy. By the way, Kade absolutely loves the scouts. I'm over the 8 year old Wolves, only 4 of them, and Kade knows all their names and during the week when he's making up stories he'll use them as characters. It's so cute.
Kade found a little hummingbird on the sidewalk on his way to Cara's house. Cara and the kids ended up taking care of it. It was so cute, and so neat to watch it drink the sugar water. I think they named her Lily.

Camping at Coon's Bluff

2010-05-08T13:41:00.000-07:00

It seems like at least once a year we end up camping at Coon's bluff, mostly because it's close and it has water by. This time, in March, we came with Dad Jackson and Glen's cousin Nick.

Down by the river. I was going crazy trying to keep Bryson out of the water, so Glen tied his pants to a tree behind. As you can see, he's trying to get as close as he can while his pants are pulling off.
Kade practicing to fish. A little later, he actually got in the water and the current pulled him under between that rock Nick's on and Glen. Glen fortunately was able to grab him quickly, but Kade was wet and cold. Just a little scary.
This is Dad repelling. We met a guy who was a regular at repelling and had all the equipment. He was so nice to let us all go down several times, he was even going to let us use it the rest of the afternoon, but we had to go. It was so much fun. I haven't been since college at EAC, which was like 7 years ago.
Glen.
Me. The first part is the scariest.
Dirt entertains boys for hours.
Bryson literally was rolling in the dirt, and Kade loved to make mountains.

Random February Pictures

2010-05-08T13:19:00.000-07:00

Picnic with Caylin and Dallin. My boys love playing with them every Friday.
Kade, Kaia, and Brooklyn looking at the pregnant cow at the zoo. She was due any day. She was huge and looked like she couldn't get up. (I know how that feels).
After the zoo on the way home.
Kade being silly with his camping chair cover.
We were at Grandpa Newell's birthday party at the park, it was so cold and rainy, and so grandpa had a little heater by him. Kade walked by and swiped his hand on it and got burned. It was so sad. He still has a little scar.
This is where Dallin fell asleep, on the floor with a bunch of pillows Kade and Caylin set up. Too cute.
Kade loves playing and wrestling with his buds, Nick and Ben. Every time Kade gets their outgrown clothes he'll smell them (because they're always so clean and crisp) and say "It's Nick and Ben's." The Friday before conference we went to Nick's baptism, and the next week I took Kade and Konnor to the pool and Kade said "Konnor lets get baptized" and then he jumped in. It was so cute.
These legos are also from Nick and Ben. He loves them. These are his horses and below are just a couple of his variations of airplanes. I love it when he shares his creations with Bryson, but then I have to watch out for the screams when Bryson is trying to destroy them.

Our Little Garden

2010-05-08T12:49:00.000-07:00

In February, we finally started our first little garden. We had a billion pieces of wood we took down from our porch that we used to build our above ground boxes. I have to say I was very proud of myself using the big saw and drill. I made the square box in the dirt and the small box with the white flowers, Glen made the big rectangle one. I love them. As of now we have only eaten the spinach and cilantro out of our garden, but we're starting to have red tomatoes, and our squash is growing. The only thing successful in the square box has been the cilantro, everything else started to grow and then went to a stand still. I don't know what the deal is. I love going outside and looking at the new blossoms and water the plants. I don't know if it will last in the heat though. As you can tell by the after pictures, things are already dieing. We're still experimenting and hopefully over the years we'll have good success. We planted red bell peppers, carrots, beats, spinach, squash, cucumbers, green onions, cilantro, a strawberry plant, tomatoes in the topsy turvy.

Before picture in February.
After picture in May.

Just havin' Fun

2010-05-08T11:26:00.000-07:00

Back in February, Glen started putting away his camping stuff and this is what ended up happening. The kids absolutely loved sliding down out of our bedroom window into the living room, and kept running back for more.

Kade's New Trick

2010-01-31T20:51:00.000-08:00

Earlier tonight Kade was doing some tricks on his scooter he got from Christmas!

I have to say he's pretty awesome!
I love this video. The flip was not part of his trick, but made a good video! You can hear Bryson in the background saying "ow, ow!" Too funny.

TRADITION!!!

2009-11-04T14:50:00.001-08:00

I'm so excited! I love this time of year!!! And it always starts November 1!!! As you can tell, I have put Christmas music on my blog now. Ever since I can remember we have always started listening to Christmas music right after Halloween, Nov. 1!!! We looked forward to it every year, and it was like a sin if you listened to it before that date! :0) It was always a competition who turned it on first. I remember several times my Uncle Wick would call early in the morning and tell us he has his music on, do we? I have to admit, I have sung a few songs during the year, and I did watch a Christmas Elmo and Elf this summer, but I officially started listening to Christmas music this last Sunday and I LOVE IT! Anyways, that's my blurb for the day! Turn your music on!!!

We "FISH" Kade a Happy Birthday!

2009-10-21T14:26:00.000-07:00

I've had this draft since Kade's birthday in September, we had computer problems, then the holidays, and so now I'm finally posting it in January. Kade turned BIG 3 Sept. 17, 2009. We "FISHED" him a Happy Birthday! Here's some pictures.

Apricots with pretzels, cream cheese and mini chocolate chips. It was fun to make to go along with the theme.

Our octopuses. Hot dogs with spaghetti noodles.
The kids making their egg carton "tackle boxes."
Fishing from upstairs into our living room.

Kade's 3 blue fingers.

What an excited face!

We love you Kade!

Cute Bryson Pictures

2009-10-20T13:58:00.000-07:00

Last month I went out to Amy's house to help her do the brown paper walls in her bathroom. I got a hold of her nice camera and started playing with it. These are the pictures I took and think are such sweet pictures of Bryson.

Annual Jackson Reunion

2009-10-20T07:19:00.000-07:00

August 29th we went to the annual Jackson reunion at "the ranch" in Clay Springs. Glen's Uncle Dennis and Aunt Iona always do such an AMAZING job fixing all the meals for the family. It is always GOOD eatin'. Some families come camp on the ranch the night before, but Glen got off work late and was too tired to drive so we did a one day trip. Early morning to late night, but it was worth it. I think it is so important to go to reunions and stay connected to extended family. I've enjoyed visiting and getting to know Glen's extended family every year. Here's a few pictures from the day.
I like this picture of Bryson and Grandpa Lowell.

All the kids took turns riding the horse.

We had lots of fun volleyball games.

With the wind it got pretty cool, but the kids still did a slip n slide.

It is not a Jackson event until there is some random competition. This time it was holding a sledgehammer, about 8 lbs., straight out with your arm. You could do it to the side or in front and hold it however you want. Glen's cousin's husband, Boon, won, Glen got second. This picture does not show all the funny faces Glen started to make towards the end of his time as he was straining to hold it up, it was funny. I did it for 2 minutes, which for not working out I was pretty happy.

Save Your Scraps

2009-08-28T21:26:00.000-07:00

I got the idea for these Quilted Notecards on this site,
http://www.dana-made-it.com/2008/06/tutorial-quilted-notecards.html, which I thought was really cute. This is such an easy project for anyone, and what I really love is that there is really no way to mess them up. I knew there was a reason I would save all those little scraps of material when I do my projects. The internet is amazing and people are so creative. You can find ideas to use scraps of almost anything to create something else. I love it.
Here's my first 10 cards I put together for a pack to take to the Jackson family reunion as part of my stuff to contribute for their auction.

Here's an upclose of a couple to show the zigzag.

Here's what the inside looks like.

Cloth Baby Toys

2009-08-28T20:13:00.000-07:00

I had made this Cloth Block and Cloth Baby Rings for Dallin's First birthday. Hopefully he's not too old for these yet. It was so hard to figure out what to make for a boy. Girls are so much easier to make for. Anyways, for the Cloth Block I used this website, http://makeitandloveit.blogspot.com/2009/03/as-promisedcloth-blocks.html, and then I also added a couple little rattles in the middle so it would make noise when you shook it. For the Rings I used this site,http://makeitandloveit.blogspot.com/2009/03/cloth-baby-rings.html.

Here's some vegetables I bottled this week. I'm so lucky to live by the Superstition Ranch Market. I got a ton a stuff for only $18. So I bottled them. I always thought the mixed vegetables looked cool in the bottle.

This is Kade waiting for me to cook breakfast. Unfortunately, he wasn't feeling good and ended up throwing up a little later. It was wierd though because it was completely clear, it seemed to be just water, which I guess that's all he had had that morning so far. And then after he threw up, he was completely normal and went off to play.

Organizing our Food Storage

2009-08-28T19:38:00.000-07:00

Last week, I was finally able to find space for my food storage where I can actually get to it easily to use it; instead of having to sleep on it as we did in our last apartment. I only needed a couple shelves out of our hall closet to put my bottled food and one of each food in the #10 cans and PETE containers, then I can refill them when necessary.

This picture shows under our staircase. A lot of houses have hall closets under their stairs, which we do, but then our neighbor told us we should knock out the dry wall in that closet right underneath the slant of our stairs. So Glen knocked it out and now we have all this space to store our bulk food storage. I love being able to see and get to everything. So anyone with stairs, you may want to look into that for a cool space to store food.

Also under our stairs we filled up our water barrels and tucked them in there. It feels so good to finally have them full. I don't know if you can tell, but the barrels are on furniture movers with the wheels. Tim and Cara gave us the idea, which is brilliant because otherwise once you fill them up with water there's no way you can move them, this way they seriously come out so easy. So just an idea for anyone who wants to fill up barrels. Just don't make our same mistake and leave your barrels while filling it up. Long story short, here we just had the flood in our home, from the empty townhouse we share a wall with, back in June, then we were filling these barrels up inside the house, sometime in July, and not just once but twice it flooded. The first time, it was near the kitchen and living room on the tile, I got distracted, luckily Cara was at our house and she asked how the barrel was going. I panicked and ran in and started yelling "TURN OFF THE WATER!" While Cara went to turn off the water, Glen grabs the hose and kinks it and throws it in kitchen sink...while the water is still on...therefore, the hose unkinks and water starts spraying everywhere in the kitchen. I could not believe it. We all tried to hurry and soak up all the water and tried to save the new baseboards we have put in, and finally had that barrel done and pushed back in the closet. Then for the second barrel, we tucked it in the closet first and then started to fill it up. I didn't want the flood to happen again so I sat there for a minute or so and then decided it was going to take a little while and so I went to help my kids and Cara's kids get some food, and guess what happened? Yep, overflowing water all in our stairs closet. Again, we had to find more towels and clean up, take both barrels back out to put several fans to let it dry completely in there. Oh, Glen was sooo frustrated. We were exhausted after that and had a million towels to wash. It gives me a really good laugh now. I think for our emergency preparedness list we need to add "Build Noah's Ark!" Anyways, that wasn't a short story at all, but it was fun to write down that great moment!

After putting all the food storage away and other house stuff from moving, we had a ton of boxes. So last Friday when I had eight kids under 4 yrs. old, I thought I'd let the boxes keep them busy. I tried helping them make a house, which Caylin enjoyed and colored a box for a TV. But Dayson, Konnor, and Kade were more interested in stacking the boxes and knocking them down! Boys will be boys!

Here's just a few random pictures from last week. Glen was holding Bryson while getting in the freezer and Bryson reached in the door and pulled out a popsicle! The camera just happened to be right there, I had to take a picture! He's so stinkin' cute!

Glen was with the 12 yr. old scouts and they had to practice on a bar of soap for wood carving. This is what Glen created. We have no clue who it's supposed to be, but I thought it turned out really good.

Toad

2009-08-18T23:30:00.000-07:00

We were leaving Amy's house late Sunday night, and just a little bit down the street a big toad was in the road. So Glen had to pull over, pick it up and take it back to Amy's to show the rest of the fam that was there. I used to see these all the time in Ajo growing up, and our wonderfully smart dog, Hooch, would eat them and get really sick. We would find his throw up everywhere. Ok, you didn't need to know all of that. Anyways, I haven't seen them in ages, so it was kind of fun. As you can tell below, Kade was not too thrilled.

Scherenschnitte

2009-08-18T14:40:00.001-07:00

For Amy's birthday I decided to try a scherenschnitte, or in my terms paper cutting. This is the website I've been looking at about it, http://papercutting.blogspot.com/. I've been into silhouette pictures lately and so I thought I would try something new, and especially since Dave is leaving for a year, I thought she might like it. I first took the following picture of Amy and Dave, printed it out, traced them, and then cut them out with a x-acto knife on black cardstock. Then, I put their picture on top of the second picture below to get the whole floral design, and then added "Love" in the middle. I cut it all out and then put it on scrapbook paper for the background. Sorry my picture turned out a little dark. If you're an artist you can really make up a lot of cool designs of your own, but I'll probably stick with templates.

Arizona Natural History Museum

2009-08-18T14:21:00.000-07:00

I'm a Cub Scout leader now, so on Saturday Glen and the boys joined the scouts and I at the Arizona Natural History Museum. http://www.azmnh.org/Home.aspx. Unfortunately, we only took a couple pictures, and they didn't turn out very good. But we did have fun. They have an exhibit of Mars, Indians, panning for gold, a couple other things, but the main one was the dinosaurs.

Cloth Baby Shoes

2009-08-18T12:53:00.000-07:00

I made my first pair of cloth baby shoes for my cousin's baby shower this past Saturday. This is the tutorial I used http://www.michaelmillerfabrics.com/blog/cloth_shoe.pdf. It was really fun, easy, and a cheap way to get baby shoes. I'll post the picture of the pair I made as soon as I have it.

Bryson's First Haircut

2009-08-18T08:03:00.000-07:00

After the birthday party, we decided to give Bryson his first haircut. The kids didn't get to bed until midnight. I felt bad, but we had to get it done.

BEFORE SHOTS

MIDDLE SHOT

AFTER SHOT- although by this time it was late and he doesn't look too happy!

He's really not happy! He has a green tongue from a sucker we had to give him to keep him happy while cutting his hair.

These next few are after his bath. He was being so cute and cuddly with these pillows.

I love his teethy smiles! Isn't he cute?!

Bryson's 1st Birthday!!!

2009-08-11T00:38:00.000-07:00

I can't believe Bryson is already a one year old! His birthday was August 8th. I remember being excited that he was born on 8-8-08. Although his birthday was on a Saturday, I was getting ready to speak in the adult session that night and couldn't think of anything else, so we did not do a single thing for him that day except sing him the "Happy Birthday" song. I felt bad, but luckily I don't think he cares when we celebrate his birthday. So we did a little FHE party for him last Monday, 8/10/09. Here's pictures of what we did.
Going swimming!

Here's some of the fam swimming. Nelson, Kelsey and kids, Esther and kids, Tim, Cara and kids, and Mom.

The Cute Birthday Boy!

Bryson's dump truck cake. I was trying to find a cute easy cake to do, and this is what I found on the internet. I thought it was fun. I borrowed Tim and Cara's dump trucks and then crumbled cake, cookies, and pudding to put in it.

Emma ended up helping Bryson blow out the candle.

Everyone watching Bryson.

His classic BIG eyes!

Isn't he CUTE!Yummy worms.

Cara gave me the idea of putting worms in the "dirt." The kids had fun eating cake and digging for gummy worms.

Looks like Bryson's getting Amrie with cake.

Kade loves the babies.

Our baby Einstein. His hair after being cleaned up. He definately needs a haircut.

Opening Grandma Nelson's card with a $1 bill for being one.

Bryson trying to eat the bubbles from Carson and Amrie. These bubbles you don't have to pull the wand out, you just squeeze the bottle a little and the wand pops up so you can blow. I thought that was clever.

A cute outfit and fishies from Emma and Elias.

Kade needed a little attention!:0) I think he makes a great present for Bryson.

A classic nursery toy from my mom and dad.

Monkey backpack from Holladay kids. Cara knows I need a way to hold on to my kids.

The next day he got another classic nursery toy from the Keeler kids. You pull the lever down, the middle spins while making different animal sounds. I love the classics.

Cara doing the YMCA with Bryson.

Thanks fam for celebrating with us. You made it fun. We sure love our Bryson boy!

Kade is now a Swimmer

2009-08-09T00:27:00.000-07:00

Kade has been such a good little swimmer lately. He still just goes small distances but I think he does so well especially for just being two years old. I am very proud of him. This little video of him swimming was in June at the hotel we lived in for a week. That is when he first started to really swim out by himself. He loves it. He also loves watching this video of himself. He'll watch it over and over again. It's cute (or maybe vain.lol.j/k).

Diaper Case and Burp Cloths

2009-08-08T00:05:00.000-07:00

I thought I would share another project if anyone was interested. I made these for my cousin's baby shower. They're super easy and quick. Enjoy.

Diaper Case:
http://www.sleepingbaby.net/jan/Baby/dipecase.html

Burp Cloth:

http://anewchelseamorning.blogspot.com/2007/03/such-mystery-not.html

I Love Kade's Sweet Moments

2009-08-05T23:27:00.001-07:00

Some of you know that Kade is a very loud, rambunctious, but cute boy! Right?! Well, today I really enjoyed seeing his sensitive side come out. I was watching Nelson's kids, and while I was holding Heston, Kade came over and just admired him and was touching his belly and cheeks so softly. He just loved him. I was thinking "man, Bryson's still a baby, why aren't you gentle with him." Anyways, Kade asked to hold him, so I put him on the couch and Kade sat there for over 45 minutes holding Heston and holding the binkie in his mouth. He actually put him to sleep for a little bit. I love those cute moments. It actually made me a little baby hungry. I was also shocked because here I had 5 kids, 3 years old and under, and because he was holding Heston, I was still able to do the dishes. (I usually can't even get to the dishes with my two kids.) I know he's not always going to be like that, but I know he'll be a great big brother and a good help for future babies. (If not, I'll make him.j/k) Isn't Heston a CHUNK?!

Crafts this summer

2009-07-29T21:33:00.001-07:00

Back in May I was reading my friend's blog and she referred to her sister's blog which had a huge list of sewing projects with links to the tutorials which show how to make them. It's AWESOME! These sisters make so many cute things. I look through it all the time and now I've kind of started making my own list with links. Since then I've been trying some of them for birthday, baby, and graduation gifts. I love doing this stuff. It's kind of like "my time", even if it does go through early the next morning. :0) One of my favorite parts is going to pick out the material. I called Glen one time while I was at SAS and told him how excited I was and how much fun I was having finding all these cute matching materials. He said, "oookayyyy." He just doesn't understand. :0) Anyways, I thought I would share them and put the links in case anyone is interested. Oh, also, if anyone is interested, another great fabric store is "Home Fabrics" on Stapley off the 60 by the AMC theatre. They have a lot of cute heavy duty material for great prices.

Valori Wells: Grocery Tote: http://valoriwells.typepad.com/valori_wells/2007/11/grocery-tote.html
I made this for Julianne's birthday because she's out of the house soon and will have to do her own grocery shopping, plus she could use it for other things too. Thought I would help her be a little "green." :0)
This is supposed to be the inside, but as you can see it could be the outside. That's the groceries I put in the bag for Julianne; classic spaghetti, macaroni, and raman noodles.

Easy Skirt Tutorial:

http://neverenoughhours.blogspot.com/2007/12/easy-skirt-tutorial.html

This was for my niece Anika; her birthday is on the 4th of July.

Nursing Cover:

http://madebythemamamonster.blogspot.com/2008/04/nursing-cover-tutorial.html

This nursing cover was for Carolyn when she had her baby. I pretty much followed this tutorial, but I also added a contrasting fabric on the other side. So I kind of used the one my friend, Leslie, had made me as a guide.

Here's another nursing cover I gave Kelsey.

Crayon Roll:

http://www.skiptomylou.org/2007/04/25/on-a-roll/

I had made a couple of these for my nephews Dayson and Carson. I thought they were nice because it seems if you ever take crayons to church, or even at home, ALL the crayons end up out of the box and all over. So this way you can lay them all out and see every color and keep them neat, hopefully. :0)

Crayons all rolled up.

Reversible Shoulder Bag:

http://lulalouise.blogspot.com/2008/01/reversible-shoulder-bag-tutorial.html
I love reversibles, and it's nice and big too. This one was for my niece Kamery when she graduated. When I gave it to her I had put a "Daily Survival Kit" in it; something similar to the one from this link: http://www.wow4u.com/daily/index.html. One of my favorite teachers in high school, Ms. Vandament, gave a kit similar to this to each student in my class when we graduated. I thought it was great and so cute.

Fabric beach balls: http://www.purlbee.com/fabric-beach-balls/

I made these for my niece Makenna. It was fun to find the material to match her room. I thought these fabric balls were so cute and just had to try it. I made them the night Glen took both boys to father's and sons outing. I lost track of time and ended up staying up all night making them. I had so much fun, and they really aren't that hard.

That's all for now. I would love to get other's ideas. Have fun.

Weekend of Work and Play

2009-07-27T12:46:00.000-07:00

I just thought I would post some pictures of this weekend. Although Glen still had to work on Friday, our weekend kind of started on Thursday. Jacob spent the night at our house Wednesday, and so when my mom picked him up on Thursday Kade said "I want to go to 'hajo'!" So the wonderful mother she is, my mom offered to take Kade from Thursday until Sunday. Kade had so much fun! My mom said he did great except in the evenings when he would get tired he would ask for me and to come home. So at least I know he loves us! I would talk to him every day and he sang us songs and reported what he was doing. Jacob, of course, is his bud and they played all day, and Jacob would race Kade to see who could finish their meal first to get Kade to finish his food (he used to be such a good eater, and now he just gets too busy and doesn't want to eat). Even though Kade's home, he still talks about this dog they saw in Ajo. So Kade was gone, and Bryson sleeps from about 8pm until after 10am (just waking up once to eat). On Saturday night he went to bed at 7:30pm and woke up Sunday at 11am. It was awesome. We got to sleep in plus take a nap before getting ready for church. On Thursday night we watched a movie with Tim and Cara. Friday night Esther and Jesse came and we traded watching kids to have a date. They spent the night and then Saturday morning Esther and I went to some yard sales. Now I have to brag about my husband a bit. Our HOA spotted us on four different projects: rust on screen door, cables can't be showing, fix gate, and the roof on our patio (still need to do this). We got an extension and have to get them done by the end of August. So Glen dedicated Saturday for some of those things. Although they weren't that hard of projects, they still were time consuming and outside in our great 20 million degree weather in July. What made him even greater was he let me shop basically all day and for a couple of hours while I was gone he worked with Bryson on his back. And then about 9pm when he was done and came inside, he didn't even complain that the house was a wreck. He really works hard and does such a great job. I love him so much. Thanks babe. On Sunday, my dad brought Kade to Esther's house in Maricopa about 5:30am and Esther offered to take him to church with them. So after church, Glen and I took our crock pot meal to Esther's house and picked him up. Esther was nice to provide all the side dishes, dessert and she even made salsa. Thanks Esther and Jesse. We ate and then Malin and Sarah came over and we all played BUST! It was so fun, but everything has to come to an END!ha. (notice the first picture.ha)

Bryson has this thing about always going head first. This is Emma's baby's pack n' play.

Video of Bryson falling in the baby pack n' play!

Kade fell asleep holding on Emma's princess ball.

Glen scraping off the rust and then he repainted the screen.This is the old board that the gate was supposed to latch on to.

New one. I'm sooo excited my gate actually closes now!

Bryson's avocado face!

Posing for the Camera

2009-07-21T09:32:00.000-07:00

On Sunday, after we got home from church, we took Bryson out of his carseat and he was so hot and sweaty. Poor baby. I always feel bad in the summer time putting these kids in steaming hot carseats. His head was so sweaty we started making hairdos. He desparately needs a haircut. He's still cute, though.

Kade took this picture.

Kade posing for the camera.

Kade started walking away from me and I told him to turn around for a picture. This is the pose he gave me. Too funny.

Bryson on stairs

2009-07-17T13:16:00.000-07:00

Here's a couple videos of Bryson going up and down the stairs. I love chasing him while he laughs and tries to climb faster. It's so cute. He's been climbing up the stairs for about a couple months now, but hasn't learned how to go down. So we've been trying to teach him to go down on his stomach with his feet first, but instead he goes down sideways or head first. I love it, just ignore the part where he falls. :0)

Going for candy

2009-07-05T17:46:00.000-07:00

This is a short little clip of how Kade was going for the candy at the parade. He would just kind of run around slowly in a circle while Glen would yell and point "get the candy, hurry!" It was funny. Luckily Nick and Ben were so nice to share and show Kade where to get the candy.We're going to have to teach him to be more agressive. On the other hand, I guess it's good he's not getting candy. ha. It was fun.

4th of July

2009-07-05T16:30:00.001-07:00

Can you believe it? It's one day after the 4th and I'm actually putting it on my blog. We've been in Clay Springs for the weekend with Glen's dad and Glen's sister, Cara and her family. We didn't get up here until 1:30am early Friday morning. Then Glen did a 5:30am temple session with his dad and grandpa in Snowflake. By the time they got home, about 9am, I had started bottling peaches for myself and Dad Jackson. I pretty much spent all day Friday doing peaches, apricots and apricot jam with some help from dad. Glen helped by watching the kids. It felt so good when my last batch was pulled out about 11:30pm. Then the next day, 4th of July, we started early by going to the flag raising and pancake breakfast at 6am at the church building. Tim took Kaitlyn and Konnor in early to be part of the parade with Tim's family in the Dairy Queen T Bucket car. So Cara and Makenna joined us as we watched the cute 2 minute parade in Clay Springs. Glen's grandpa was the Grand Marshal. We then headed to the Show Low parade and joined the Letcher family, some friends from our old ward in Tempe. We missed about half of the parade but still made it to see Tim and the kids. After the parade, Chris and Terri Holladay, Tim's parents, were so nice to have us over for a huge delicious lunch and a nice ride in the T bucket. They also fed us DQ flamethrowers for dinner Friday and ice cream Saturday. Thank you Holladays! We then headed back to Clay Springs to do some more shooting with the Letcher family. They were so nice to let us try all their different guns that I have no clue about, but it was fun to miss all my targets!ha. seriously i did. However, the day before I got 0 out of 10 clay pigeons and this time I got 5 out 10. Not bad, huh? That night we thought about going to see the fireworks in Heber but we were pretty lame and tired and didn't want to drive 30 minutes. So we watched "Forever Strong" with dad and Tim and Cara because they had not seen it yet. It's been a fun and busy weekend. I'm sure grateful for our Independence, and because of that we have religious freedom and Joseph Smith was able to restore the gospel on the earth. Hope everyone had fun celebrating this weekend as well.

Grandpa Jackson as Grand Marshal in Clay Springs. He served in World War II and has been a resident of Clay Springs since 1920.

Kade with Nick and Ben Letcher waiting to get candy from the parade.

Cute Bryson and Glen cheering in the back.

Glen and I taking a ride in the Holladay's T Bucket. It's awesome!

Glen helping Kade shoot a .22 gun.

Getting ready to shoot a AR-15.

Cool gun, I'm just a bad shot.

Random October Pictures

2009-05-18T09:47:00.000-07:00

Here's some random pictures I thought were cute. Around October 20, 2008.

This might sound funny, but this picture reminded me of a little baby bird.

Not real happy about standing up.

Big brother Kade loves to play with Bryson.

So sweet and innocent, right?

He's getting ready...

"I'm gonna eat you!" His drewel is about ready to flow off his bottom lip.

Another fun time at the Phx Zoo

2009-05-11T15:31:00.000-07:00

October 16 we went to the Phoenix Zoo with Esther, Carolyn, Colleen & all their kids, and mom and Jacob. I believe we were trying to get together as much as we could before Carolyn moved to Colorado. Here's some picts.

Glen's Birthday in ClaySprings

2009-05-04T20:50:00.000-07:00

As you know, I'm still updating October. We spent Glen's 26th birthday, which is October 12, in Claysprings. I remember when we were engaged and at my bridal shower we were playing a game and one of the questions was asking me when Glen's birthday was. Talking like I totally knew it, I said October 17. After his sister's told me no, I was so embarrassed. Here I was going to marry the guy and I didn't even know his birthday. I could have sworn it was Oct. 17. For his first couple birthdays after we were married I had to double check and make sure I got the right date for his birthday. Anyways, here's some pictures from that weekend.

Cute pictures of Bryson. 2 months.

The kids had fun playing with the stickers.

Kade loves stickers.Kamery and Bryson (2 months), James and Makenna (5 months), Lacey and Anika (3 months)

Glen's nephew, Jace, has almost passed him up.

Glen with his smores cake I made him.

Doesn't that look yummy!

We also celebrated his cousin Quincy's birthday.

Kade's 1st Night in Toddler Bed

2009-05-04T00:08:00.000-07:00

I wrote this on 10/6/08.
Well, today I finally changed Kade’s crib into a toddler bed. He’s in the habit of sleeping with us, or at least falling asleep in our bed and then we move him. We tried just putting him in the crib and letting him cry, but he would cry, cry, cry and you could tell he was wide awake and not going to sleep, so I would give in. Since he didn’t like his crib, I would start using that as a punishment. It worked pretty well, but I decided he should probably like his bed. After I changed his bed to the toddler bed, he seemed to like it and liked being able to get in and out by himself. When it came to bed time, instead of doing our scriptures and prayer routine in our room, we did it in his room where he could lay in his bed while we read. When we knelt down for prayers, it was so cute to see him kneel down by his bed with his arms folded on top of the mattress. It was such a precious sight. Then while Kade was repeating Glen’s words for the prayer, he starts picking his nose and eating his burgers. NOOO! I didn’t know it started this young. So gross, but I guess we all did it! Ha. Then it was time for bed. Kade seemed to realize something was up, so I turned on some primary music, turned off the light, shut the door, and laid by him in hopes he would fall asleep. Nope. It was so cute though, he would start singing some of the words to the songs he recognized, “I am a child of God” and “Teach me to walk in the light”. Every move I made he would pop up and every once in a while he would reach over and feel my face to make sure I was still there. After a while, there was no progress of sleep. So I went out of the room and shut the door leaving him crying. After a few minutes he opened the door. So I just gave in. As soon as I put him in my bed, he fell right asleep. Oh well, we’ll see how tomorrow works out! Maybe I’ll be stronger.
5/3/09
Just to give an update on the whole bed situation, for the most part he does not sleep with us. Glen and I were getting tired of being kicked around in our own bed and Glen was getting horrible sleep. Kade had to have his space. Glen would be all the way on one side, myself on the other side and Kade had the whole middle, sometimes sleeping horizontal. Plus, we only have a queen bed, and once Bryson was born there were some nights all four of us would be in this queen bed. Sometimes when Kade thought we got too close, not even really touching him, he would say "owie owie, scoot over mom." We would get so frustrated sometimes and have to remind him this is mom and dad's bed, not his. And then sometimes when he got his space he would still end up right up next to one of us. Too funny. Anyways, since we've moved into our townhome, he has been so good to fall asleep in his own bed. There were a few nights we had copied what we had seen on "Nanny 911." We would tuck him in, kiss him and say good night. Then, whether it was Glen or I, we would sit on the floor close to the door. Of course, Kade cried and got out of bed. The first time he gets out, we put him back and reminded him it's time for bed, and then when he gets out again we just keep putting him back without saying anything. The first night we did that, well actually Glen did the first night, it took about 20 minutes, but then it got better every night after that. One of those first few nights, I had sat on the floor at the end of the bed with my back towards him, Kade was crying while calling "mom, mommy," and then he came over and hugged me around the neck. It was so sweet and sad. It was really hard for me because naturally when your child is crying and calling for you, you want to comfort and hold them. I gave him a hug and then put him back to bed. Those first couple nights it was hard to sit there and hear him. So we kind of compromised. One of us will lay next to Kade's bed until he falls asleep, luckily it doesn't take too long. Sometimes he will wake up in the night and come in our room. We will put him back in his bed, and the times he won't go back in his bed then we put a blanket and pillow on floor and he sleeps just fine there. Sorry, that update was kind of long. Anyways, as sweet as it was to see Kade asleep next to us, Glen and I are extremely happy to have our bed back.

No more sleeping in mom and dad's bed!

My Sleep Talker

2009-05-03T23:30:00.000-07:00

When you read the following paragraph just remember I actually wrote it back on 9/9/08.

I just thought I would write a little blurb about my husband. Last night around 11pm or so, I started walking towards our bedroom and I hear some talking. The only part I could make out of what Glen was saying was “That was so crazy, Bryson. I love it.” But what made it sound so funny was this whole conversation he was having was all in BABY TALK. It was funny. Glen talks a lot in his sleep and whenever I hear him I always think I’ll remember what he says so I can tell him in the morning, but I always forget. So this time I actually wrote it down. And while I’m on the subject of Glen’s sleeping habits, there were multiple times he’s hit me in his sleep. One time, when Kade was just a little baby, Glen swung his arms out to the side and hit me right in the face. Kade was sleeping right between us too, but luckily he was too little and didn’t get hit. It hurt though. There were times when Glen would just suddenly sit straight up in bed, it would scare me because it was so fast I would think something is wrong. Another time, he sat straight up and then flung back and hit his head on the wall. Poor guy. But then there were times I really appreciated him immediately getting up in the middle of the night when I was pregnant with Kade and Bryson, I would get huge leg cramps. I would cry out “CRAMP, CRAMP!” and he would get up and rub them for me. Saved my life! Love him.

8-9-09: I just thought I would write another sleep talking moment of Glen's. This actually happened probably back in May and I wrote it on a scrap paper and now I'm finally recording it. This one's funny because I really do feel like we're always saying that to Kade. He gets so messy and then has to touch everything. Glen said, "Uh oh! Somebody has messy hands and face. Don't touch anything. (then in a louder voice) Don't touch your clothes."

October Conference Weekend 2008

2009-04-30T23:44:00.000-07:00

Ok, this is really embarrassing. I have not updated since October, but I'm going to be better. People tell me to just start from right now and don't worry about what I've missed because I'll get overwhelmed. Well, I am overwhelmed but I just can't seem to skip all those months. Anyways, I went to Enrichment tonight and they were talking about the importance of keeping some kind of journal, whether it's scrapbooks, blogs, written journals, etc. I haven't kept up on any of those. There are so many cute things my kids do and experiences we have and I never write them down. Soooo, I'm going to do better. But for the last months, it will be mostly pictures.

Bryson-2 months old

For several months, Bryson loved to stick out his tongue.

Aunt Julie makes a great horse. (Kade calls her Julie instead of Jewls or Julianne)

Carson and Kade love Uncle Jacob!

Sometimes Kade will start playing with my hair, which I think is cute...until he starts twisting it in his fingers and hands.

Carson and Kade jammin' out!

Kade wearing Aunt Janae's glasses.

Kade wanted to get himself dressed; shorts and shirt backwards and diaper hanging out. Too cute.

Kade loves grandma and grandpa's sandbox.

Yard cleaning project. Kelsey sweepin' away.

Jacob and Nelson

Carson and Kade are working so hard.

Julianne struttin' her stuff.

Dad and Glen "pondering" the conference talks.

Bryson trying on some of Jacob's Build-A-Bear outfits! Isn't he just the cutest with his belly shirt?

Trying on his Halloween costume.

Can't you tell he loves it?

Kade wanted to wear the helmet so bad.

We always like to hear Janae play her songs.
Kids dance party.

September Excursion- Fountain Hills

2009-04-30T23:14:00.000-07:00

Glen and I have lived in Arizona our whole life and feel like we don't know enough about it and haven't seen or have forgotten a lot of places. So last September we decided that we were going to go to one new place or do one new thing every month. And of course, so far, we have always waited until the very last days of the month, and the past couple of months we have missed. So on September 30 we went to Fountain Hills off of highway 87 on your way to Payson. Now for some Arizonans that may sound kind of funny but we had only been there before for track or a football game. We had never been to the Fountain Park. I read on the internet that "Fountain Hills boasts the largest continuously flowing fountain in the world, which spurts water 560 feet into the air every hour on the hour. The fountain is located in the middle of a man-made lake." Whether or not it really is the largest, it is still extremely high and awesome to go see. I believe we got to see it three times: as soon as we got there, while on our walk around the lake, and right before we left. If we didn’t have our kids it could be a really romantic place to go in the evenings and take a nice walk around the lake, but it was fun to have the kids. We had a picnic, fed the ducks, watched the fountain, walked around the lake, and played on their fun playground. It was a great Monday night FHE for us.The fountain reaches 560 feet.We couldn't believe how close the ducks got to us.

Kade loves to climb!They had a nice little Veterans Memorial. Glen's trying to teach Kade.

This is a bad picture, but they light it up at night.

Arrival of Bryson Glen

2008-10-18T23:54:00.000-07:00

Bryson Glen Jackson. Born 8-8-08 at 2:16am at Banner Desert Medical Center. Glen joked about naming him "Beijing" in honor of the Olympics which started that day. Yeah, that's not gonna happen! He weighed 8 lbs. 6 oz., 21 inches long, head was 14 and chest was 14 ½ .
I figured it’s about time I write about our newest addition. Here goes the whole pregnancy, labor, and birth story. Beware, it’s kind of long. Ok, it's REALLY LONG! To begin, my sister-in-law, Amy, calculated on the internet that my due date would be August 9, but when I went into the doctor they calculated August 2. So Bryson could have been born a week late, but I think he was right on target. Although I was hoping to have him early, I knew not to think that way because Kade was born a week late. The whole pregnancy I felt like my belly was smaller than with Kade, so I didn’t know if I was going to be having a girl or not, but I just had to remember that Kade was just really big, 10lbs. My pregnancy was gratefully fantastic. With both pregnancies I never was sick or threw up. I loved chewing Sonic ice and eating saladitos (a Mexican candy - dried prunes with lots of salt) from the Texaco in Ajo.
I didn’t have insurance until the end of the pregnancy, so the first time I saw a doctor was at about 34 weeks. Luckily, everything was fine and I didn’t worry too much about missing all those beginning appointments. I just was anxious to hear the baby’s heart beat, which I love, and get the ultrasound. But because I didn’t get an ultrasound until after 34 weeks, we decided to make the gender a surprise. It was actually really fun and exciting to wait. I definitely recommend it at least once, but the next time, because I’ll know I can find out, I’ll probably get too anxious and find out.
I had been dialating and effacing for a few weeks before Bryson was born, but I never was really having any contractions, just small Braxton hicks. On Thursday, August 7, I went with Sarah, Kelsey, Esther, and all their kids to a pool on Dobson and played around for a while. Afterwards, I went and picked up Glen from work and went to my Dr. appt. about 3pm. The Dr. said I was dialated to “a good 3 almost a 4” and I was effaced a good bit but I can’t remember how much.
We got really excited and anxious and decided to go to WalMart to walk around and try to get my contractions going. While we were there, I called my mom and of course she was excited and wanted me to go into labor. I just couldn’t wait, so I decided to get some Castor Oil. When we got home, I took the castor oil about 6pm. I was hoping, but really didn’t think it would work because it didn’t work with Kade. Well, about 10pm I started having some small contractions but I was still able to fall asleep. Every once in a while a contraction would wake me up. About 12am I finally got up and had to go diarrhea. The castor oil had kicked in. The contractions were coming harder and quicker. It was actually more comfortable and easier to go through a contraction on the toilet. Finally I decided I should probably start timing them. I was trying to see if I could hold out calling people until about 7am, but they were coming too hard and fast.
About 1:00 am I called my mom and told her I was having contractions about 3 minutes apart! She said, “Dayna, YOU NEED TO GET TO THE HOSPITAL!” She and my sister Janae, who is going to school to be a nurse, started driving up here. I wish I would have called her when I was first having the contractions because she lives two hours away, so they didn’t make it in time for the delivery. I went and woke up Glen, and of course he had to say “can I just sleep 10 more minutes”, haha. Thankfully he was just joking. I really didn’t think the castor oil was going to work, so I didn’t have anything packed or ready to go. So in between the times I was on the toilet, or leaning over my bed or leaning on my knees, I was trying to get some clothes on and tell Glen what to pack and do. I told him to go ahead and drop Kade off at my sister Colleen’s house, just about a mile away, and come back for me. He had Kade in the car and everything loaded and at the last second I said I better go with him. If he would have dropped off Kade first or if we would have done anything different, I could have had the baby at home by myself or in the car. Thankfully we didn’t. haha. We rushed to Colleen’s, leaving Kade screaming from such an abrupt wake up, and then rushed to the hospital. I was feeling a lot of pressure at this point. Luckily we were just going to Banner Desert on Dobson, just a few miles from our house.
At the hospital we walked, REALLY FAST(ha), into triage and asked what we needed to do, they said “for what?” I thought that was funny since I was obviously in labor, breathing hard and trying to control myself through contractions, then I said “to have this baby!” They had me fill out a sign in slip, which I had to end up handing over to Glen so I could breathe. The people there were not in a hurry at all! They sent me to the triage room to change into the robe. I came out and asked to use the restroom. They showed me where it was and told me NOT to push for anything. As soon as I sat on the toilet I felt like I had to push, so I rushed back into the room saying “I got to push, I got to push.” I don’t think they knew I was that close to delivery because they were trying to calm me down and get me to lay down. As I was leaning back to start laying down, a contraction came on and forced me to push. So as I am in the process of laying down, I’m pushing and my water burst and sprayed all over the room. Glen asked the nurses “was that her water?” ha. I’m sure glad it wasn’t pee. I didn’t even have time to take my sandals off. So they laid me on the bed and could see the head right there ready to come out. So they rushed me in the triage bed to a few doors down to a delivery room. They tried to get me to switch beds, but as I tried I just kept having to push. So I didn’t even make it to a delivery bed. My Dr. wasn’t there yet of course, so a nice Dr. that was walking in the hallway heard the commotion and asked if she could help. I did about two pushes and the baby was out. Glen yelled it’s a BOY! I told him to hurry and get the camera. Everything just went too fast so we didn’t get him cutting the umbilical cord. Man, what a sight if we got all that commotion on camera. I wish I could see it; everything was so crazy and FAST. So we arrived at the hospital about 2:08 and I delivered 8 MINUTES later at 2:16am to sweet Bryson Glen Jackson. I was so excited to see him.
I love it when the Dr. first pulls the baby out and then immediately places him on my chest. I felt so relieved and then to hold the baby for the first time there is such a warm feeling. I am so glad I got to be a part of this miracle. Boy #2 is finally here. He is so adorable and such a good and healthy baby. I can’t say enough how much I love my boys! I absolutely loved having such a fast delivery. I felt great afterwards and the recovery was wonderful. The only bad thing was I was positive for that Group B Strep, and since I didn’t get there in time to receive antibiotics, we had to stay in the hospital from Friday until Sunday. For the most part I love being in the hospital. You get to relax, they bring you food, and we got to watch the Olympics. It was great, except our room was really small. There were times when Glen was asleep and I had to climb over him to get to the bathroom. After a couple days of that, we were really ready to go home. My mom brought Kade to the hospital a couple of times to see the baby. He seemed to do fine and gave Bryson lots of kisses and said “I love you.” When it was time for him to go, he said bye and took off out the door. Thanks Colleen for taking him in the middle of the night, and thanks mom for taking him for a few days. It was a big help. Thanks all who came to visit and brought treats, and mom and dad for the classic “It’s a Boy” See’s suckers. We are so grateful and blessed to have Bryson join our family. It’s amazing the sweet spirit these children bring into the home. I just can't help but smile when I look at them. Whenever my children think they know how much we love them, it will always be more! I love being a mommy and I am so grateful for Glen doing all he can so I can stay home with the boys! I’m so grateful for eternal families!

Cute Kade Moment

2008-09-22T09:14:00.000-07:00

On Monday night, 8/4/08, Glen was giving the family prayer and Kade was kneeling down and folding his arms so cute. He was being so quiet and good and then after a little bit into the prayer he nicely said… “Amen.” What a hint to Glen, and then I guess he figured Daddy didn’t get the message because he kept praying. So then Kade gave a big yawn and sigh! He was so funny, we couldn’t help but laugh in the middle of the prayer. We love our little man!

Lewis Sister Retreat

2008-09-22T08:55:00.000-07:00

On July 10-12, 2008, was our annual Lewis Sisters Retreat. I was in charge of it this year. I feel really bad because I didn’t really have a set theme or a real specific devotional talk set up like the past Sister Retreats, but it still was really fun and relaxing. I hope the girls enjoyed it. I enjoyed just spending time visiting and learning from all my sistas! They’re such great examples to me. The retreat started on Thursday, and poor Sarah, Colleen, and Kelsey with her baby(I believe it was them), had a rough time getting there as Sarah’s car overheated and died as they were getting off the exit, they were so close. It was funny to hear their story of how funny it must of looked with two pregnant women (Sarah and Colleen) standing on the side of the freeway checking under the hood and directing traffic. Finally, but gratefully, they made it to the house. I had reserved a beautiful home out in East Mesa, off the 60 and Crismon, I believe. Anyways, it was so beautifully decorated and I thought it fit us all great. It was 3 bedrooms, 2 baths, a nice patio, pool, jacuzzi, in ground trampoline, nice big screen TV, and I thought we got a pretty good deal, $165 per night. Usually the owners rent the house for only 3 nights or more, but they were so nice to let me rent it for just the two. Thursday night we did our White Elephant Gifts. I ended up getting Julianne’s which was a cute little round Chinese hat, she just bought in China, that had a braided piece of hair out the back. It fit Kade perfect. I loved it! Then we split into two groups and we had to use the gifts we just received to make up skits. My group used our props to silently act out the spouses of the other group of girls and they had to guess. And the other group did such a good job with their tattooed arms and music, and I’m sorry because I remember them doing such a good job and being hilarious, but I can’t remember the plot.ha. But good job. J Friday morning we watched “Dan In Real Life.” That afternoon we went to the temple. We met Grandma Nelson there and she came back and spent Friday night with us. We love having Grandma. Later, thanks to Carolyn, she had brought all her stuff to make little girlie bows and headbands. Then for dinner, Julianne made an incredible Chinese dinner that she learned how to cook in China. I can’t remember what everything was, but she did so much. She even set the table with her new real China dishes and we had to use chopsticks to eat. It was so fun and so good. Then we had our traditional special scripture study and thoughts, and I just gave a little thought. I also read a poem my mom had written several years ago for Mother’s Day. And of course all us emotional moms cried. That is a talent I think my mom should do more, she’s great. Poetry is so hard for me, so I think it’s amazing when someone can write it. Then after all of that, I played a video I had made. The video is what I really worked on the most to try and get done for a surprise at the retreat. Thanks to my brother-in-law, Tim, I was able to learn how to do it and get it burned. For my first video, I really enjoyed it and thought it came out pretty good. Of course, there probably is a lot of stuff I should and shouldn’t have done, but it all worked out. It was really fun to watch with everyone because the video was pictures and video clips of past sister retreats. Throughout the retreat we did lots of swimming, visiting, and relaxing. I look forward to these retreats every year. Thank you Janna for watching Kade all day Friday. And thank you husbands for taking all the kids camping. Can you imagine 5 guys taking 5 girls and 3 boys, all under 7 yrs old, camping? We couldn’t believe it, but they had so much fun and did great. Look forward to Kelsey’s retreat next year!!!

Kade's Sunday Nap

2008-08-26T23:55:00.000-07:00

Kade was so tired one Sunday, 6/22/08- church is during his nap time, that as soon as we walked in the door from church he walked back into our bedroom and within a few minutes we found him asleep at the end of our bed on the floor. It was so cute. He loves to hide under pillows, or the bed skirt or the blankets hanging off the bed. Sometimes he’ll crawl all the way around the bed under the bed skirt and just laugh. What a goofball. I love it!

Glen's Graduation

2008-08-25T10:02:00.000-07:00

I know this is three months late, but it doesn’t mean I’m not proud of my husband! Glen worked sooo hard for his diploma and we are both so happy he’s done! I’m going to backtrack a little. Glen took a semester at Northland Pioneer College in Show Low before his mission and then after his mission, in New Zealand, he attended ASU in the fall of 2004. We got married in April of 2005 and moved close to ASU. Glen went to school full time and worked part time. Over the years he has worked at ASU, he drove school buses for Tempe, did Pest Control in the summer, and then worked at AZ Back Institute. School finally became too hectic and busy that he finally decided to quit his job at the Back Institute and just focus on his last year at school! Glen was so dedicated that at least a few times a week he would wake up at 2am to study, then go to his classes, fulfill his callings in the church and still find time to be with his little family. He is such a hard worker! Needless to say we were so excited for his graduation day! Tim and Cara treated Glen and I, and also Tim’s brother Bryan and his wife Jen, to dinner and a show, “Man With The Pointed Toes”, at Hale’s Theatre for his graduation present on Thursday, May 8. It was so much fun and so nice and generous of them! Then the next day, Friday, May 9, at 8am was Glen’s graduation! I can’t believe they have graduations that early. Traffic was crazy and needless to say I was late to the graduation, but it was probably a good thing because it was sooo long! After they called Glen’s name and we all yelled and cheered, then Tim and Dave took some of the kids outside to play in the grass! After graduation, Glen’s family came over and we had lunch and swam all afternoon, and then that night we had a dinner for him at a ward building nearby. It was nice to have a big area for the kids to run around. A big thanks to my family and Glen’s family for pitching in and helping out with everything. We tried to do a Costa Vida dinner with the salad in the tortillas with beans and meat and rice, etc. It was great! My dad also presented Glen with the “Lewis Mafia” ring. He’s kind of made it a tradition. My dad received one when he graduated, and now when each son has graduated my dad has presented them with a ring. So my brothers joked that Glen was now part of the mafia. I’m so proud of this big accomplishment he’s made. He graduated with Cum Laude Honors, but if they would have taken his 3.62 GPA at the end of the Spring semester he would have been Magna Cum Laude. He graduated with a Bachelor of Science degree in Kinesiology. His intent was to take it into Physical Therapy, however, he has received a job, through a guy in our ward, with Martin Worth Medical which is a section of Biomet Orthapedics and has a lot of potential. So the whole Physical Therapy thing is on hold right now. I love my husband and I hope he knows how much I appreciate all his hard work and dedication to his family! He’s the BEST!

Spring Break and Ice Fishing

2008-08-05T10:13:00.000-07:00

I know this is really ridiculous that I'm barely writing about Spring Break, but we had such a good time I had to back track. Glen and I had a great Spring Break! We were both off school and Glen wasn’t working, so we took full advantage of it. We first went to Ajo. I believe we got down there on Sunday, March 9, 2008, after church. We pretty much just hung out, relaxed, played games, and had fun. We also wanted to spend time with Jewls before she left to China, and it was fun to have Janae there too, home from EAC for the week. Monday or Tuesday night, even though it was early, my mom was so nice to have a cake and everything to celebrate my birthday, just like the good old days. I always love going back “home.” We left Wednesday morning, March 12, so Glen could work on Lacey’s house in Mesa. On Thursday, March 13, my birthday, Glen was so nice to bring me breakfast in bed. I have to be honest though, I did hear him cooking, but I was going to soak up every bit of this. Haha. I stayed in bed until he brought it to me. I had already received my present; he gave me permission to go buy some new pants. He’s so funny. He decided he didn’t like any of the jeans I had so he said I could go buy new ones, which is fine by me because my jeans were so old and nasty. Of course, with the pants came a few shirts as well. My excuse was that I found pants at Sears for only $5 and then another pair at Aeropostale for $10 which I paid with a gift card. I was so excited, and Glen approved.haha. Anyways, so we got back from Ajo on Wednesday, and then on my birthday, Thursday, we headed up to Clay Springs. On our way, I think a little past Payson, we got a nice little present from a police officer telling us our tint in the two front windows were too dark. I knew they were dark, but I couldn’t believe he actually pulled us over in the middle of no where for that, he had to of been bored. I think our tint was around 30% and the legal tint is 10%. So as soon as we got back the next week we had to fork out over $100 to fix it. Oh well. In Clay Springs, Lacey and the fam had a nice birthday dinner for me. Lacey also made these cute recipe cards and homemade perfume for me! She’s so creative! That Saturday, 3/15/08, on our way home, we went to Willow Springs to ice fish! Dad Jackson followed us in his car so he could join us. Just to let you know, ice fishing is so much fun! I guess any fishing is fun when you can’t get your poles back in the water fast enough. Glen and I both have two pole stamps and we were only able to keep up with one pole each. The fish were biting so fast. We ended fishing out of a hole that was already there in the ice, and caught all our fish, 12, from that hole. Then the next weekend we went again and caught our 12 in the same hole. Dad had tried a couple other holes and only caught a few, something was just special I guess with that one hole. I don’t know. We had gone up Friday evening, 3/21/08, hoping to fish, but we got there too late and didn’t catch anything. We watched a movie in our car and just slept there. The next morning we went out and caught our limit within a few hours. As we were heading out we were happy to see Dad Jackson, Grandpa Jackson, Aunt Margaret and the kids. So Glen and I decided to stay and help them catch some fish. We had a lot of fun. They caught several more fish. Aunt Margaret was prepared and shared lunch with us. Thank you. While there, we also found out that as long as Kade is holding the pole we can catch a few more fish and it counts as his. Ha. Anyways, this is a long blog, but it’s more for us than you. But just to let you know, we are definitely going ice fishing this winter if anyone wants to go. Hopefully I’ll keep up with the blog and let you know when.

Camping at Coon Bluff

2008-05-18T20:33:00.000-07:00

I’m finally updating again! It’s hard to get the courage to write when I know I have so much to catch up on, so I end up waiting longer, which doesn’t make any sense because then it becomes more to update. Anyways, I’m going back to February 29 and March 1, 2008. Glen and I had been craving to go camping for a long time, so we decided just to go. Amy and Dayson were the only ones able to join us and we’re so grateful they did, they are great company! All five of us fit very comfortably in our tent. We tried to make things pretty simple for food and still were able to have yummy hot chocolate and fresh popcorn! I don’t know about you, but that was my first time ever having popcorn while camping. We have a popcorn maker for the stove, so we were able to use it on our little camping stove. I loved it and it tasted great with the hot chocolate around the campfire. The weather and everything was perfect. It was actually really green and beautiful. Saturday, we walked down the river a little bit. There was hardly any water in it, but enough for Dayson, Kade, and I to sit in the raft for a little while. Glen then took the raft by himself down further and tried to fish a little, no luck though, there seemed to just be a ton of sucking fish. Well, that was pretty much our quick trip. We love it.

Jackson Family Day

2008-02-23T13:01:00.000-08:00

Well, after this post our blog will finally be updated. On Tuesday, February 12, it was one year since Mom Jackson had passed away. We miss her so much and think about her all the time. Some times it's hard because then I start thinking of all the "what if's" and "I wish or should've done's." But gratefully we have the gospel and know she is so happy right now and that we will see her again. On that Tuesday, Amy and Cara met Glen and I at Cracker Barrel for lunch, that was mom's favorite restaurant. It was so nice to be with them and visit with NO kids! Then on Saturday, Feb 16, Lacey and her family and Dad Jackson came down from Clay Springs so we could all be together. We missed Kamery and Jace, they are both in a play and had practice. A little while ago Dad had bought a big Zoo package so that he could take his whole family to the zoo together, so that Saturday we all went to the zoo for the day. It was so fun to be together. It was also fun to have Zola join us about 1:30pm for a the rest of the day. She is so sweet and so easy to talk to. Thanks for joining us, Zola! After the zoo, we all went to Cara's home for a very nice dinner. I'm embarrassed to say though, I had the easiest dish to bring, fresh green beans with almonds, and we were so late. Sorry guys. I used a recipe Cara gave, and I have to say they turned out pretty darn good. Anyways, when Glen and I got there, they had the table all set nicely and we had a full out meal. It was sooo good! The BEST part of the whole day was after dinner. We are so grateful for Tim. He put a ton of hours in to make of video of Mom Jackson! We cried and laughed and cried some more! Thank you, Thank you, Tim! This is going to be the best thing especially for the kids to remember their grandma! We each got a copy! It was so nice and such a special evening for us all! I am so grateful to be part of such a wonderful family!

New Year's Weekend!

2008-02-22T07:19:00.000-08:00

New Year's weekend was our "Christmas" with my family to exchange gifts and have fun! Glen and I got to Ajo late Friday night. Saturday some of the guys went hunting and us girls took the kids to the church to play, and Janae and Julianne taught us sisters a dance they learned from cousins Rachel and Emma. I can't remember any of it now, but it was so fun! Also, Saturday morning Colleen and I announced to my family that we are both pregnant! I did the same thing as Christmas, showing them the Tshirt with Kade's picture on it! It was really exciting especially since Colleen is pregnant too. She's about a week or two behind me. On Monday morning, New Year's Eve, we did the whole gift exchange. Malin and Sarah had our name and they also way over did it. They gave all three of us a gift plus a gift card to Bass Pro Shop. We just used it to help buy Glen and I fishing licenses. Thank you guys! My parents gave the grandkids a Noah's ark toy, and then each of us kids got a stove popcorn popper. I love it! Then Mom and Dad opened their gift from all the kids! I got the idea from my sisterinlaw, Cara. She cropped and printed out all the pictures! Thank you Cara! The blanket has pictures of my parents as babies, when they're around high school age, their wedding picture, each family picture with a new child, and then a family picture of all the kids now. It turned out so nice I thought. They seemed to love it. New Year's night we all stayed up playing Acquire and other games. Most of the kids left Tuesday, so the party was breaking up. We hate to have it all end! Now it's time to plan the next family activity!

Christmas w/ the Jacksons

2008-02-21T23:08:00.000-08:00

Christmas break was so much fun! We were able to stay in Clay Springs for about a week! It was awesome just relaxing, playing games, watching movies, visiting, some went tubing. Christmas Eve we got ready for the traditional Jackson party that night. The pictures kind of explain everything. Glen's sisters did such a nice job planning it. Everything turned out great. After all the activities were over they started having competitions, starting out with limbo and then all the guys tried to see how high they could jump over the pole without touching it. It was so fun to watch. After everything ended so late, everyone put their kids to bed and then we stuffed everyone's stockings and laid them out. They had some great goodies, good thing Kade is only 1 and doesn't know when his stuff is missing. haha. Christmas morning everyone opened their stockings first and then we all went downstairs around the Christmas tree and opened gifts. Kade's gift from Santa was Legos! He stacks them together really well, but he also dumps them everywhere too. ha. Tim and Cara had our name this year and they went way over the budget. They are always so good to us! Thank you, Thank you! So for Glen's Christmas gift this year I made him another blanket (last year Amy helped me with the jean blanket). But Glen has been begging me to make him this Tshirt blanket of all his football shirts from high school. So I went down to Ajo for a couple of days and told him I was working on a blanket for my parents, but I was really working on his. And then on Christmas Eve we sent him into ShowLow, and Amy and Cara helped me finish it. It is so big, heavy, but really soft and cuddly. He seemed like he really liked it, and he told me he had no idea I was making it. So it turned out to be a nice surprise! For me, I always jump the gun and end up finding something I want and buy it, and then give it to Glen to give me. That's kind of bad, but he hates shopping anyways. I picked out a bunch of fresh water pearl jewelry from China that my sister was selling, and then Glen did surprise me and bought both of us new cell phones which we needed really badly. Then, Glen had bought me a nice shirt. All by himself, he picked it out, and it fit perfectly. I thought that was the best because I know he hates shopping and he found something I really liked and actually fit me. As we went around opening gifts, Dad Jackson had a gift for each of us daughters. It was the most special moment of that morning. We all opened it at the same time, nobody said anything, and we all just started crying. He had given each of us a lockit necklace that said "I Love You" on the front and then on the inside was a picture of Mom and Dad Jackson. We miss mom so much but are so grateful for eternal families. Another exciting moment that morning was a gift we gave to Kade, as you saw in the picture. A shirt with his picture saying "I'm gonna be a big brother!" Since it's February right now, most of you already know, but #2 IS ON THE WAY! We are so excited! We had been holding it in for about 3 weeks so we could tell the family at Christmas, and then I told my family New Year's weekend! The rest of Christmas day was very lazy. Then on Wednesday we went to visit Aunt Kay in her new home out past Blue Ridge. Glen and I returned home Friday evening around 6pm, we activated our new phones, I finished my parents blanket and then decided just to go down to Ajo that night, instead of the next morning, to be on vacation again! Those two weeks were so fun, but you can't have vacations without money, so back to work we go.

Thanksgiving Weekend!

2008-02-21T20:32:00.000-08:00

Well, it's February and I'm barely writing about Thanksgiving. Oh well. We had a great Thanksgiving with my side of the family. Seth's brother, Bryce, and his wife were out of town and so they were so nice to let us ALL be in their home, while they are gone, and even stay the night. They have the biggest backyard I have ever seen; pool, full tennis court w/ basketball hoop, enough grass area to have a Turkey bowl, trampoline, sand box, playground equipment, plus the basement in their home is their toy room. It was so nice!!! It kept the kids completely occupied so the adults could play games of tennis, Turkey bowl, visit, etc. It was a blast and the weather was perfect! Each family brought an assigned part of the Thanksgiving feast! I brought the sweet potatoes. Everything was so yummy, like always! Kade especially loved it!ha. Everyone was making fun of him because he always "makes his rounds." Whenever we're with other people he won't eat from Glen and I, he just goes from one person to the next with his mouth open. So cute! Carolyn was so creative and made each kid their own bag with different T-Day things. One of things were feathers and wire so they could be the little Indians. It was so cute. Later, we had Thanksgiving program. Two years ago Glen and I dressed up like the pilgrims and told the story. This year Seth was a good sport to dress up and tell the Thanksgiving story. Nickie also recited a really long poem she had memorized. I was so impressed, and then she did another with Malaya. We also had Grandma Lewis with us that day! It was so nice, we haven't been with her for a holiday in a long time. She is so funny and sweet. She spoke to us for a little bit and then we did the traditional "what are you thankful for?" I love being with family! Even though the home was in Gilbert, several of us still stayed in their home that night. The next day of course was "Black Friday." This was my first time ever to do the whole early morning shopping thing. Colleen, Esther, Janae, Julianne, and I all went about 4am to go shopping. It was so much to have a fun girl bonding time, but I'm not sure if I'll do that again!ha. We ended shopping about 8am and then all the couples went to the temple to do a session. Janae, Julianne, and Jacob are always so good to babysit for all of us. It was a wonderful weekend with the fam. Always hate for it to end, but at least we had Christmas to look forward to.

Sweet Baby Brooklyn!

2007-10-21T23:50:00.000-07:00

Brooklyn Kay Felton was born September 26, at 10:27pm. She was due last Saturday, Sept. 22. She weighed 9 lbs. 2 oz. and was 20 in. long. She is so cute and has luscious cheeks. Carolyn looks great and I think they were going home today, 9/27/07. Colleen, Esther, and I brought Kaia in to see her new sister. She just kind of stared. It was nice to go see them in the hospital, it brought back so many memories. I'm baby hungry. Congratulations to Carolyn and Chad on girl #2! She's beautiful! Good Luck with all the hormones, Chad!haha. We love you all!

Kade's 1st Haircut!

2007-10-21T23:48:00.001-07:00

We made it until Kade turned 1 year old before we cut his hair for the first time, but it was a close one. The hair hanging over Kade's ears were driving Glen nuts. We finally did it a week after Kade's birthday on Tuesday, September 25. Glen held his head so I could cut. Kade was screaming and kept trying to look behind him to see the cutters. Finally we gave him a DumDum sucker and he was sooo good. That's the way to do it if you can handle sticky hands and face, and hair all over the sucker by the time you're done. That was gross. For cutting a babies hair for the first time, I was kind of proud of myself. Just don't look too closely and it might look pretty decent. He looks like a little boy now! We love our handsome Kade-man!

Kade's First Birthday!

2007-10-21T23:46:00.000-07:00

On Sept. 16, Esther and I did a Sunday birthday dinner for Kade and Jesse. Jesse's birthday was that day, the 16th, and Kade's was the day after, the 17th. Jesse turned 25! Someone mentioned that when Kade turns 25, Jesse will be 50 years old!!! I'm sure that made him feel real good! It was funny though. Anyways, Colleen and Seth were so good to let us do it in their home, like always. We had dinner and then let Kade dig in his cake. Lacey and the family in Clay Springs called and sung him "Happy Birthday." As you can see in the picture, Kade was smiling. It was so cute. Then I wasn't even expecting to open presents because his parents didn't even get him anything, but it was so nice he had a few to open. Kelsey and Nelson gave him these fridge magnets and some animals, which Glen says everyday how much he loves those animals. It was partly my birthday too because I ate half the container of goldfish from Malin and Sarah, and Cara remembered I had said I needed to get Kade a crib mattress pad, and so I got it. Also, a big thanks to my brotherinlaw, Seth, and sisterinlaw, Amy, for taking all the pictures! Our camera wasn't working! It was so fun and thoughtful of everyone to come and celebrate with us! We love our sweet boy! I can't believe he's a year already! I could sit there and watch him for hours! He brings us so much joy! I could have a dozen of them!(no i'm not announcing!ha) Love you all!

Glen vs. Bicycle

2007-10-21T23:45:00.000-07:00

On Monday, 9/10/07, Glen was riding his bike to ASU like usual. When the light turned green to go across the crosswalk, Glen put his pressure on the right pedal to start going, and being as strong and muscular as he is (haha), the crank for the pedal broke in half, which is wierd because it's metal. Anyways, when his leg went down the sharp metal piece on the bike dug into to his calf. He actually didn't even know it cut him until after he walked back in the intersection and picked up his pedal, then he saw blood and then the cut. Luckily, he didn't bleed very much and it didn't damage any muscle tissue. It did cut out a chunk of fat tissue, so he jokes that this was his weight loss program. He was never in a lot of pain, but the gross part was when they had to scrub it out clean and the fat tissue was moving around. He ended up having 12 stitches, Glen guessed that before they even did it. It's healing nicely and the stitches will be removed this Friday. Fun adventures in life.

Babysitting in Kingman!

2007-10-21T23:44:00.000-07:00

Besides missing my husband, Kingman was so much fun! I didn't even feel like I was babysitting. I was there because Aunt Delon and Uncle Clyde, along with my parents, both Grandmas, and other family, all went on the Alaskan cruise. I picked up the 5 Pease girls from Alvin on Monday in Heber and took them in their 15 passenger van back to Kingman. I know, go ahead and say it, I was surprised too when they said I could drive it.haha. Glen and I were in ClaySprings for Labor Day weekend, so it worked out quite well. Aunt Delon is so organized. When we got to their house, there was about 10 sheets of paper hung up for me. It was their daily schedules, meal options, chore charts for the kids. We joked about all the pages she had, but it was really really helpful. As you saw in the pictures, we got to do a lot of swimming, and the weather was nice to play outside. The rope swing was so much fun. I said I was going to reach the rafters by the end of the week, and I did it by Thursday! This is embarrassing for me, but I have to tell a sad story. We were in the pool and Jocelyn was talking to me about how they just throw young babies in the pool to teach them to float, swim, whatever. And so I was holding Kade and decided to see what he would do. I let go of him in the water for about 2 seconds. I don't know why, but I was yelling at him to kick, like he can hear me. When I pulled him out, his eyes were big, his tongue was sticking out, and he inhaled really hard. It was the saddest thing. I will NEVER do that again. I felt like I was drowning my baby. When I tell the story now, we laugh about it, but it was so sad. He is so cute, we just love him so much. Anyways, the kids were so good to keep up the chores and mark their chart, finish their schoolwork, and they helped so much with Kade. Camilla is a strong girl. She would always hold him and take him from me, I didn't know how she was doing it. Kade just loved them all. He was the man of the house. We got to make a little craft, make these yummy peanut butter bees, decorate their barbie house. We made macaroni and cheese one day, and after I had finished eating my bowl, Jocelyn spotted weavels in every bowl. Good memories. I was able to go get my hair cut, and Jocelyn cut my bangs. I told you I didn't babysit. I did Kendra, Camilla, and Myreel's hair in rows. Myreel was busy with 3 volleyball games that week, I got to go to one. They won all of them. Jocelyn taught 5 dance classes while I was there. It was cute to watch her classes. I was telling Glen, that Delon and I share something in common. She gets so distracted. It's really hilarious. She'll be doing her homework, and then just start talking about these random topics, and in the middle of a chore she would just kind of wonder off and I would catch her outside with the dog. It was so funny. Kendra was so good to play with Kade and make him happy all day while every one was doing school. By the end of each night, Jocelyn, Myreel, and I would end up in the most awkward, uncomfortable places, like the kitchen counter or the bathroom when there is a couch or a bed right there. Myreel would always fall asleep in our conversations, I guess I'm pretty boring.ha. I have a really funny video of Myreel sleeping on the couch and Jocelyn is trying to get her to bed. What a grouch! (we love you, myreel). It is definately going in her wedding video someday. Well, that pretty much sums it up. I am so glad I got to go. I got excited and kept thinking of how it will be and what I want to do when I have a bunch of kids running around. What a great family. Thanks so much, Peases!

Labor Day Weekend!

2007-10-21T23:42:00.000-07:00

Friday night, on our way to ClaySprings, we caught the last little bit of cousin Parker's football game in Fountain Hills. Nelson, Kelsey, Jesse, Esther, Dad, and Jacob were also there, and then we saw Uncle Wick there. After the game we went to Wendy's to kill time because traffic is always so bad on these weekends. On Saturday, we had fun shooting targets in Lacey's back yard, which is right behind Dad's home. We then went to the elementary playground and had some obstacle course races. Probably the best highlight of that was when Amy went down the slide, the really bumby slide! You have to see it! It was so funny, everyone was laughing so hard, and we replayed it several times on the camera! We love you Amy! On Monday we went to see Mom's grave because her birthday was one or two days later! We picked some weeds around it and put a rock border to make it look nicer! We miss her so much and think about her daily! I am so grateful for the gospel and families to keep each other strong! We love you, Mom Jackson!

CALIFORNIA, HERE WE COME!

2007-08-25T00:44:00.000-07:00

Since I just started this blog I thought I would backtrack a little and write about our "Price Is Right" trip with Nelson, Kelsey, Janae, and Julianne. We left Tempe about 3AM on Saturday, May 19, 2007. We thought we would all sleep and then take turns driving. Naaahh! Why do that when Nelson can drive the whole way and we all stay up watching the series "24"? Oops, we're addicted! We then had our pitstop at Del Taco and saw the picture of Ajo! Who would've thunk? We finally made it to the LA Temple, which is the largest temple! They do have a Visitor Center, but it was closed. Luckily, Nelson speaks Spanish and talked to a worker outside who let us in the worker's bathroom/locker room so we could change to go in the temple. Janae and Julianne babysat in the car and walked on the temple grounds while we were able to do Sealings. I'm so glad we made that part of our trip. Then, we loaded up to go to the beach! We only stayed for a few hours there because it was pretty cold, but we still had lots of fun and some cute pictures. And Kade literally had sand coming in his diaper for like a week. Anyways, after the beach we went to our hotel, which was in China, Tokyo, Japanese (one of those kinds of towns). We were so worn out to go out to eat, so PIZZA saved the day. We ordered in, it's the best! Sunday, we arrived at the church building, except we weren't sure if it was it because it looked like a cathedral. Finally we spotted missionaries. We walked in and it had the high ceilings, stained glass windows, it looked just like a cathedral but they said it was originally built for the church. After church, we decided to go see where the CBS studio was and where we had to wait in line and when we got there, at about 1pm, people were already lining up. So we "threw" Janae and Julianne out on the streets (they said they wanted to), we went back to the hotel, changed picked up whatever we needed, and went back to the line. I am so glad Janae and Julianne stayed there because the line had grown so much already, people are nuts. We got a great spot, besides the fact that a bum came by and said that's where he sleeps (you could smell the urine, sorry to bring that up). I guess he would stay in the trees behind us. We were right on a corner and ended being around #30 in line to get in the studio. We had fun playing "Settlers",talking and quizzing each other on games and prices. The people around us were really nice, there were other people from different ends of the line that would just walk up and down the line talking to people. Cars driving by would ask us why everyone was in line, I thought they were crazy they didn't know. Well, we left about 10:30pm and left Nelson, all by himself to take the place of the bum, to save our spot! What a hero! Glen, Kelsey, and I went back, I think, around 4am. At around 6am, they gave us an "Order of Arrival Pass" and then we could leave. We went to a little coffee shop that was close and ate breakfast. We then had to go back and get a "Priority Number." Then we went back to the hotel, put on our really cool shirts, packed up, and picked up J & J, Kade, and Carson. J & J babysit at the mall while we were in the show. It was so awesome. We were just a few rows up right behind the contestants, so we ARE famous!ha! You could see us on TV a lot! Before everyone was even seated or anyone announced anything, the crowd was screamin' and dancin', it was crazy but FUN! The stage is so close. The aisle's people run down are so short. Bob wears tons of makeup, but that's ok. Kelsey got to talk to Bob during a commercial break, I forgot what she asked him. The only disappointment was that none of us got called up, oh well. It was still a dream come true for Kelsey and I. We've always wanted to go. It was definately worth it, but it's funny because I have only seen like 1 or 2 episodes since. We actually got out way earlier than we thought. We went to pick up J & J and I found them taking a picture with one of the winners from the show right before us. I think he was from Canada. The trip was so much fun! Thanks Nelson and Kelsey for going with us, J & J for babysitting, and Malin and Sarah for the Suburban. We created memories. I might have to try going back now that there is a new host. It's going to be really wierd seeing Drew Carey on there now. Got to go to bed. Bye.