Just playing catch up

Sorry for all of the new posts. I'm just trying to catch up with all the stuff going on in our lives. And I've still got more stuff that I need to post. So keep scrolling cuz there is lots to see.

8 months old

This is Logan in the kids ball basket. My mom and Afton put this over him and he thought it was the greatest thing.

Logan is 8 months now. He turned 8 months on the 26th and I completely forgot until the next day. I still can't believe how big he's getting. Here are some fun facts about Logan:
*he loves to twirl his hands and feet when he's excited. now he's moving his arms in and out while twirling his hands.
*he's always chewing on his tongue and putting it inside his cheek. He looks so silly when he's doing it. and when he's chomping on his tongue he makes the funniest noises.
*he loves the gerber baby puffs and gets so excited when I pull them out of my purse. He tries to grab a big handful and put like 5 in his mouth at once.
*we think he may be close to crawling. We're not for sure because our other two never crawled.
*he also loves baby food and will eat whatever kind I give him. He's not picky!
* we love his baby blue eyes! He's always getting compliments on them.
*he's still a big thumb sucker. He sucks on his left thumb and while that left hand is occupied he uses his right hand to play with his ear. It's the cutest thing. When i get a good picture I'll post it.
* he's definitely a mama's boy. He'll usually start to cry if he sees me walk out of the room.

Santra Cruz Beach Boardwalk

On Wednesday, the 26th of March, my mom flew back to Utah. We took a little detour on the way to the airport. Jason took some of his Young Men camping at the beach in Santa Cruz, so we met up with them the next day at the Boardwalk. The kids had a great time on the rides. We just took them on a few of the kiddie rides and they loved it. Well, except for the small rollercoaster. They both held on to me and my mom for dear life during the entire ride. After playing on the boardwalk, we went down to the beach for little bit. The kids had fun running in the sand and getting their toes wet. It was such a nice day too. I think it was probably around 80 degrees. The water was still way too cold to get into but it was nice just to let the kids run around. Dax got his pants a little wet so he went pantless while running in the water. That's his thing now a days. If he gets a tiny drop of anything on him, he strips off his clothes and wants to wear something new. It's so annoying. So I'm always packing extra clothes for him. Anyway, after a fun-filled day at the beach we took my mom to the airport. We were all sad to see her go. We love you mom and we're so glad that you came to visit us! We miss you!

Fun at the Boardwalk!

Playing at the Beach! I love the picture of Daxon's hair in the bottom right corner.

Snowy Calavaras!

So I've got some more catching up to do. On the Monday after Easter, Jason's family was still in town so we decided to go to Calavaras Big Trees for the day. To our surprise when we arrived at the park, there was still like 4 feet of snow on the trail! I'm not kidding! And we definitely weren't prepared. Kari and Sharon were in flip-flops and we were all in Capris. I don't know what I was thinking. Apparently not thinking at all. We had a crazy winter this year so I should've known better. I guess I was just expecting it to be like our weather at home sunny and a nice 70 degrees. Not the case. It was pretty chilly when we got there, but as the day went on it started to warm up and was actually pretty nice. We may not have been prepared for the snow, but we had a good time. Afton and Dax had to hold someones hand along the entire trail. They were scared of slipping and falling. And it was a little slippery. Just ask Sharon, my mother-in-law. She won for the most falls on the trail. I think she fell a total of 4 times. We had to ban her from holding any children while on the trail. We took a stroller on the trail for Logan. Yes, we weren't thinking again. But we just turned it around and pulled him behind us since pushing it in the snow wasn't quite working. And it worked that way pretty good. It was also good for balancing purposes. No slipping while pulling the stroller.

Happy late-Easter

Afton, Logan and Dax in their Easter clothes.

Man, I'm definitely playing catch-up. I guess that's what happens when you don't post for over a week. We had a really great Easter this year. My mom was here and Jason's family was also in town for Afton's B-day, so they were all here for Easter too. It was really nice! Afton and Dax had fun finding their Easter eggs and eating all of their candy. And I had fun putting them in their cute Easter clothes (thanks G-ma Sharon!). After church we went to Joy Chancelor's house (Jody's mom's house). The kids call her Grandma Joy. We've gone to her house every Easter that we've been in Cali. And we always have so much fun. She puts together a fun little treasure hunt for the kids with a bag full of Easter goodies at the end and she also does another hunt for two money eggs. This one is for everyone. Dax actually found one of the money eggs with the help of my mom. He got $5! He was so excited. After the treasure hunts and dinner, the adults played a mean game of backyard soccer. By mean, I mean no rules and no shoes. So anything goes. I think everyone came away bruised in someway. But it's lots of fun! And Jason and I were on the winning team so that made it even better.

Many Thanks!

I want to make a few shout outs to all the help with Afton's party. First to my mom for coming all the way to Cali to be here for Afton's birthday and for helping with all the party stuff. She made these amazing party favor bags for all of the girls. Another project I shouldn't have done for the party, but my mom saved the day. We made purses out of Kool-aid bags. First we had to drink all the Koolaid and then cut the bottoms off and then wash them and then clean all the sticky stuff off. Yes, it was a very long process. Then my mom sewed them all together. She was such a trooper. She sewed for two days making these stinking purses. But they turned out super cute and all the girls loved them.

Thanks to Jody (Jason's aunt) for making Afton's birthday cake. She is so talented! She made an amazing princess castle cake. It was so cute and Afton loved it! All the girls thought it was the coolest thing. And of course Dax had to stick his fingers in it a couple of times. It tasted really yummy too! So thanks Jody for making such an awesome cake for Afton. You're the best!

Thanks to my in-laws for all of their help. Sharon, thanks for helping with the set up and decorations. You're an expert streamer decorator! And thanks for taking care of Logan during the party. Kari, thanks for your help with the set up and decorations too! And thanks to my family for coming to the party. It was so much having you here with us. We miss you already.

And last but not least, thanks to my husband. Thanks for your help with the annoying castle entrance, blowing up many balloons, making the yard look nice, watching kids and most of all for dealing with me these last couple of stressful weeks. You're a great husband. Thanks for all you do. I love you!

Afton's Princess Party

On Saturday, March 22nd, Afton had a Princess themed party for her birthday. She invited 11 other girls to her party. She had a couple cousins there and the rest were from church. First of all, I just want to say that I'm so glad that it's over with. Man, this party planning stuff is hard and exhausting. I don't know how you all do it. But it was a success. We had a few bumps along the way. Our original princess coming called two days before the party and canceled because she got sick. It was a pretty legitimate reason (cyst on her ovary that ruptured) so I couldn't be too mad. But I was freaking out because I didn't know what I was going to do. She was doing three different activties with the kids and I hadn't planned anything else. So I was very stressed! Fortunately, Misty (you're a lifesaver) told me of a place close by and they had somebody available the day of her party. Yeah!! Princess crisis averted! I still had to plan a few extra games and we had to do some shifting with the schedule, but it all worked out in the end. Afton had so much fun! She has been excited for like a month for her party. The guests arrived around 2:30 p.m. and we made magic wands and played some games (kiss the frog, musical magic carpets and princess freeze dancing). We put actual lipstick on them and made them kiss the frog. It was really cute! Then our special guest arrived. It was princess Belle. The girls were so excited to see her. She read them a story and then put makeup on the girls and then she stayed to help Afton open her presents and watch her blow out the candles on her cake. It was great! They had so much fun!

(L to R)Kennedy, Chloe, Afton, Kiah, Paris, Sophia, Dallas, Dylen, Emma, Halle, Kya (missing princess, Avery. She's the other Cinderella princess in picture below)

All the cute princesses!

Afton is 5!

Happy Birthday Afton! I can't believe it but my baby is 5 years old today. Wow! Where does the time go? It just blows my mind that I have a 5 year old. It's crazy! Afton was so excited today. She came into my bedroom bright and early this morning (6 a.m.!) and said, "Mommy, don't you have something you want to tell me today?" And of course I replied, "Yes, sweetheart. Happy Birthday!" She had a great day. We didn't do anything too exciting. We just had some family and friends come over for dinner and cake and ice cream. And her favorite part was opening her presents. She kept asking when she could open them. So when she finally could she was so happy.

She got lots of Birthday phone calls. She's talking to her friend Halle on the phone in this picture.

Yummy Cake!

I bet you can't tell which one is the Birthday girl.

Dylen, Dax, Afton, Avery, and Rylan

Making silly faces!

Happy St. Patrick's Day

We hope everyone had a good St. Patty's Day! The kids had fun dressing in their cute Green shirts (thanks G-ma Sharon) and pinching me although I was wearing green. We also went to pick up my mom at the airport today. She flew in for Afton's B-day. They were really excited to see her and we're so happy to have her visiting with us.

Many many Layers!

So lately Dax loves to wear all of his jerseys/basketball shirts..... at the same time! I think he's had on six shirts at once and he wears them all day long. It's the funniest thing. He looks like a football player because he's got so much padding on. And when he tries to take them off, that's pretty hilarious too. He usually gets his arms or head stuck in at least one shirt. And cries and cries until I save him. Oh and he wears the exact same shirts every day. Yeah, they're pretty dirty. It may be annoying, but I love it when they go through these little phases. I was trying to get a good picture of him with all of his shirts on and this was the best I could get.

Play Time

Afton and Dax had their friends Rylan and Avery come over the other day to play. They had a great time playing with them and always get so excited to have friends come over to play. They played dress-up and were good and bad cowboys. They pretended to be puppies and I was their owner. They played outside and drove around Afton and Daxon's new jeep. They were trying to hang on the low-lying tree branches because they were their "vines." Kids have the greatest imaginiations!

Avery, Dax, Rylan and Afton













Rylan and Logan. So cute!

Micke Grove Park

Last Wednesday, the 5th, Me and the kids went to Micke Grove. We tagged along with Misty, Dylen, Max, Jody, Joy, Val, her mom (Krystina), and Michael. Micke Grove is a very small zoo that's about 40 minutes from out house. They only have a small selection of animals to see, but it's perfect for small rambunctious children. They also have some playgrounds, a Japanese flower garden, and a carnival with rides. The kids had a great time. Afton loved the monkeys and loved copying the noises the monkey kept making. Logan didn't like the noises very much. As a matter of fact he didn't really like the zoo at all. For some reason he cried almost the entire time at the zoo. I guess he doesn't like zoo animals and the noises they make. Dax couldn't wait to see the crocodile and we were in luck because they had one. I told him that they might have one and he was set a seeing a crocodile and he kept asking to see the crocodile the second we stepped into the zoo. It was actually a crocodilian a smaller version of a crocodile, but it worked. They all had lots of fun! Thanks Joy for the fun idea and inviting us along.

T-ball Time!

We decided to sign Afton up for T-ball this year. She was old enough and we thought she would enjoy it. She had her first practice last Thursday and was being a little grump about going. I had been practicing a little with her and she was getting frustrated, so she said she didn't want to go to practice. But once we got there and she started practicing with her teammates, she loved it. Her favorite part was running the bases. And she's actually surprisingly fast. Well, faster than we thought she'd be. We just have to work on her throwing. At least she's enjoying it and having a good time. She has two friends on her team from church, Rylan and Oz and she's so excited to be playing with them.

Motorcycle Hands!

I took these pictures of Logan when he turned 7 months and wanted to share them because they turned out so cute. He just loves the camera. I love it! Finally, one child who will actually look at the camera and smile. We'll see how long it lasts. For those of you who know my niece, Abby, may remember when she was about Logan's age she use to do this cute little thing with her hands and feet. When she would get excited she would move her hands and feet in circles. We use to call it her motorcycle hands because she looked like she was driving a motorcycle. Anyway, Logan does the exact same thing. He's actually doing it in the top left and bottom right pictures. Whenever he gets really excited or happy he starts moving those hands and feet. And he does it the most when he sees his mommy!

Afton and Dylen

This is Afton and her 2nd cousin Dylen. I took this picture back on Valentine's Day and forgot to post it. It's super cute so I had to post it. Afton loves her cousin Dylen! They have so much fun when they get together. I'm so thankful that the kids have cousins close by to play with. We're so grateful for Misty and Ryan and they're adorable children. We love you guys!

Fun in the Sun

The weather has been super nice here and we've definitely been taking advantage of it. I've taken the kids to the park a couple of times. They've had so much fun!


We went one day with Dylen and Max and Misty. The kids had a blast! Logan and Max looked so cute in their hats and they loved the swings. Dylen and Dax found something fun to do. They grabbed handfuls of bark and started piling it on the bike rack. They'd get the pile really high and then knock it off. (Picture in the top right corner) They thought it was the greatest thing in the world.