"The 'Bitch' Who Stole Christmas"

Now, ordinarily I wouldn't think that children profaning are funny; however, in the case that they don't know what they are saying, and by chance their pronunciation comes out sounding like a profanity, well....that's different. Maybe it's not ethical to try to capture it on video, but it sure is funny. Dang funny. So, when Daxton started referring to "The Grinch Who Stole Christmas," as "The Bitch," I couldn't resist. Besides, I'm sure that's what Dr. Seuss originally intended to title the book; his publishers just wouldn't approve it.

Father/Son Campout Part II

It has been a great weekend (Ben's days off currently are Monday and Tuesday) for us! After the ward Father/Son campout, Ben had "camping fever," and he couldn't put the tent away without sleeping in it once more in our backyard. This is one reason I am really grateful he now has a son to share his outdoor passions with. When we lived in Logan, Ben was always trying to get me to sleep in his tent in the backyard with him. I don't mind sleeping in a tent if I'm camping and don't have an alternative, but when I know my comfy bed is only a few yards away from me, it just takes the fun right out of the whole experience. Sooo, it was great to let Dax and Ben sleep outside in the tent while Jacy and I shared the bed together on the inside! Ben set up the portable DVD player so that it was suspended from the top of the tent and they watched "Finding Nemo" together on their backs. I'm so glad they have eachother! :)

My Work From Home

I just have to take a second to make a plug for my job....I really love it. A couple of years ago when I was working as loan officer, I did a loan for a girl who did medical transcription from home. For the loan, I had to verify her income, and I found that she made really good money for very little work, and all from home around her son's schedule. Needless to say, I was impressed! Soooo, I did some reasearch and found that you really can't get into the job without some kind of training. More research.....and I found an online training course http://www.careerstep.com/ . A year later, after completing the course, I got my first job in March right after we moved to Florida. I've been with the company for almost a year now, and it was one of the best decisions I have ever made in my life. I have a great, flexible schedule that allows me to work around my kids and still bring in a little extra to help pay the bills. It's my goal to go back to school and finish my degree sometime in the next ten years, but even if I had my degree now, I don't know what I could do that would be as flexible or convenient. Anyway, I have referred many stay-at-home-parent friends, and I thought I would throw it out there if anyone else was interested.

Father Son Campout

Ben and Daxton went on their first Father/Son campout last night. Ben said that Daxton was having a great time up until he touched the lantern and burned the tip of his index finger. He has a pretty good-sized blister on it now. Poor kid. They stayed the night in their little tent though, and Daxton was quite proud.

The New Game

So, I have been trying to come up with some kind of game that we could play with Daxton since he gets pretty frustrated when Ben and I play games that he can't participate in. Anyway, I was in Target the other day when I saw Hungry Hippos on sale, and I grabbed it 'cause I figured it would be just about right for him. It does say for kids ages 4+ on the box, but Daxton, being the exceptionally bright child that he is, hasn't tried to eat the marbles or put them in his nose (yet, "knock on wood!"). We just got it out a little while ago to test it, and it went pretty well. He doesn't quite get the competitive aspect of the game, but he understands the overall concept of trying to chomp as many marbles as he can as fast as he can. It was pretty fun, and I would recommend it to anyone who has exceptionally bright toddlers looking for a great family activity!

More Pictures of the kids...

Ohhh, the joys of having children! Jacy is getting bigger everyday.....so big that she's outgrowing her clothes as fast as I keep buying them. The picture of Dax and Jacy in the stroller together was taken yesterday at Disney world. We have made really good use of our annual passes (the gift that keeps on giving!) since we moved here and got them last May. We were trying to figure out just how many times we've been out there, and we think it's somewhere in the neighborhood of 15 to 20. It's a great way to spend time as a family. Jacy is a party animal! She hardly sleeps whenever take her to a place where there is something exciting going on. Daxton crashed at about 3pm yesterday and fell fast asleep in the stroller. Not Jacy. She kept looking around as wide-eyed as ever, and people who passed by us on the other side would start laughing when they saw her.

My First Post

This is my first official blog posting. I'm trying to get the hang of it so that Ben isn't totally burdened with keeping it up all the time. We get so many complaints from people when we don't keep our posts updated (Donna!). Anyway, it's great to be a contributor now to the publishement of our family's happenings. I wanted to attach a good family picture, and now I realize that a new family photo is way overdue. Not only is my hair now shorter and blonder, but Daxton has doubled in size and we've added one more member, our little girl Jacy, to the bunch! We promise it's coming soon. Just as soon as Jacy gets a little bit more camera friendly. She's still on the border of the "lifeless grubworm" and "cute smiling fat baby" stages. If we took her to get a photo now, she'd come out looking like Daxton did when we tried to get his portrait taken at 5 weeks. Maybe I'll attach one of those beauties just so that you belive me that it was bad. Only REALLY excited new parents would look at a picture like this and think, "ohhh.....he's BEAUTIFUL!" Here are a few of my favorite shots from that photo shoot. Enjoy!





Well, I don't have much more to say at the moment, but you can expect that to change as I get more "into" the blogging trend.....never been a big fan of scrapbooking, but this seems to be the right alternative.

Smiley

Jacy's starting to smile and coo. It's fun to watch them change from being a vegetable all day to becoming a person. The picture is from our first Sunday going to church at the one o'clock block. We came home frustrated because Dax was even more fun than usual since we're now at his least favorite place right during his nap time. We started making some food and Dax went to playing the piano. After a couple of minutes the lovely music stopped, so we walked into the family room to see what he was doing and this is what we saw.

To Infinity...

We went back to Utah for a week of relaxation, family, and skiing. Jen and the kids were actually there for an additional week before I got there. It's great to fly for free, but that means we fly stand-by. Luckily Jen traveling alone with the two little ones got three seats next to each other to make the trip just barely tolerable. When I tried to fly out the next week, I wasn't able to get a seat, so I ended up flying into Vegas with another instructor from the school and we rented a car and drove all night and got into SLC around 7am Sunday morning. But at least it worked out because we had family come into town for Jacy's blessing that day. Please don't be offended that we didn't call anybody to hang out, I was so set on trying to relax that I didn't even take any pictures or videos the entire trip, I just wanted to relax. So here are some pictures we took of Jacy in her blessing dress after we got back home, and a video of Dax from the other night after he had watched "Toy Story". He just started doing this on his own completely unsolicited; he just picks up on stuff from movies without even trying.