I'm a terrible blogger!

I really need to get my butt into gear and post more often!

Summer has now come and gone. We didn't get to take any big vacations or anything, but we did make quite a few trips to Malad to camp, work, and play!

June was the birthday month. We have 5 family birthdays in June, 6 if you count Sami's at the end of May. One of those birthdays was my new niece. Jennifer had Aiden Nicole on June 17th, one day off from my birthday!

July...we camped in Malad over the 4th of July weekend. It was a nice relaxed weekend full of nothing! We didn't do any work, we just played and relaxed. It was nice. Then I went down to Utah to see my friend Holly at her mission farewell. It was great to go and see her before she left. She is in the Nashville, Tennessee mission.

August we had a family photoshoot with my dad's whole family. That same weekend we hit one of my friends wedding reception, and also got to see my mom in SLC. We were also asked to speak in Sacrament, which I always dread! But it turned out pretty good. Forrest and I also celebrated our 5 year wedding anniversary. I can't believe it has been that long! We didn't get to do much due to finances, but we were able to at least go out and have dinner together at Texas Roadhouse....mmmm! And then the end of the month we headed down to Utah again for Jefferson's ordination.

This past weekend, Labor Day, Forrest's sister Audrey came into town for a visit. We all made a camping trip to Malad since she hasn't seen all the work we've done on it this year. Jackson and I headed down on Thursday and stayed til Monday. It was a nice weekend, but I was glad to get home. It was almost too long to be away! But it was great to see Audrey again, and we're looking forward to seeing her again at Christmas.

It seems like summer just flew past this year! But it was a good one. Now here comes fall...I love fall! :)

We've tried potty training with Jackson. No success yet. There are times when he seems ready, and others he's not even interested. It's a bit frustrating, but I'm staying calm about it and will just have to wait and see when it happens!

We planted a garden again this year. We have had our hands busy canning! Mostly we've just canned dilly beans. It's a recipe that Forrest's Grandma Infanger would do, and he absolutely loves them. Jackson has taken quite the liking to them as well. We've canned close to 45 jars of those, 12 quarts of peaches, a few bags of frozen peaches, raspberry jam, cherry pie filling, tons of zucchini bread, and we've attempted to make some dilly zucchini....not sure how that's going to turn out! We have had loads of zucchini and were sick of zucchini bread, so we decided to try something different!

Oh, and a funny moment from Jackson....actually two!

He was introduced to LemonHeads this past weekend. Well, today, he came up to me and asked for a "Yummy Head"! It gave me a good chuckle!

Today, he got one of my laundry baskets and placed it in front of the recliner. He stood on top of it, put his hands in the air and said, "To infinity, and beyond!" then proceeded to jump onto the recliner! I was laughing so hard! I guess he's watched Toy Story a few too many times!

Nothing much else is going on. Forrest is working grain harvest now, I'm still staying at home with Jackson, and Jackson is growing and getting smarter everyday!

And now some pictures for your viewing enjoyment! There are quite a few, but they are good ones... :)



Feeding the ducks at the river in June

Tautphas Park Zoo

Jackson fishing with his papa...I love this picture!

Jackson and Grammy

Grandpa and Jackson snoozing

Jackson and Papa napping in the hammock

Ready to ride!

Kadee giving Jackson a ride on his new trike

Motorbike ride up New Canyon

He put my slippers on, grabbed his cup and

chair and plopped himself in front of the tv!

Family Photoshoot....The rest of the following

Pictures were taken by Chelise VanDeGraaff

Recent Happenings

It's been a while since I posted last, so I thought it might be good to update! Nothing real big or exciting has happened lately, but just some fun updates on Jackson.

We've been going to Malad a lot the last few weekends to plant trees and build gates and a bunch of stuff like that on Forrest's parents property. We took our camper down there and parked it, so now we can go down and camp while we are there to do work! Jackson absolutely loves camping! It's perfect for him to just run around and wear himself out (that is until the snakes come out!) But he gets so excited when we go so we can sleep in our camper, ride the 4-wheelers, and drive Grandpa's tractor. It's fun to see him so excited.

Jackson also seems to be turning into a little man! The other day I was making dinner in the kitchen. Jackson had gotten in trouble over I don't know what, but after he got scolded by Forrest, Jackson turns to him and says, "Mommy's being naughty!" So Forrest asks him what I did. "She put her finger in the corn!" Which is true because I was checking to see if it was warm enough. I chuckled, and Forrest asked him if I needed to be spanked, to which he replied "Yes." So I got "spanked" for being "naughty". Jackson turns to me and spouts off, being completely serious, "Mommy! Go to your room and sit on your bed! Fold your arms! You're in time-out!" (pointing his finger at me and all). Forrest and I just started rolling! It was quite hilarious!

Another of his recent ramblings, "This is my freakin' dog Sierra!" I turned to Forrest and said, "Well, I guess you better stop saying that word!" I explained to Jackson that he shouldn't say that word. But it's kinda funny to hear him say it; he uses it in the most odd ways!

Oh, I almost forgot! We are proud to announce that Jackson has been binky free for 2 weeks! AMAZING! He was so attached to his binky, we thought it would be like pulling teeth to get him to wean off of it. One night, I decided to cut off the tip of his binky, gave it to him, he put it in his mouth, and immediately took it out. He said, "Mommy, it's broken. Fix it!" It was so sad! The first night it was tough to get him to go to sleep, but after that, he's done great! No more waking up in the middle of the night because he lost his binky. Hooray!

I've added some pictures of Jackson, some from Easter, and others of him just being goofy! Enjoy!

Coloring Easter eggs


He kept saying "Ooooo" to all the egg accessories. He had a Mickey Mouse Clubhouse coloring kit.

The egg hunt

I like this one. He was looking under the truck, but didn't even see the egg in the back of the truck!

Yeah, he actually tried to bite it. His mouth was blue for a while!

His crazy morning hair...

This one he said, "Look Mommy! I'm funny!"

Showing off with Daddy's hat.

Update...

It seems like a lot has happened since I last posted. It's been a pretty rough month, but I'm going to try and focus on the positive! So here's a little bit of an update....

We had a fun 'snow day' I guess you could call it. A few weeks ago, we had some perfect snowman building snow. We built our huge mexican snowman! We put a sombrero on him, and a scarf, but the scarf wouldn't go all the way around his neck! He measured to be about 5'6", but he looks absolutely massive next to Jackson! Then Jackson had to help Forrest shovel the driveway. He loves to help daddy!

Jackson is now in a 'big boy bed'. We converted his crib down into a day bed, and he was so excited! The first few nights he did great, but about the 3rd night, he fell out for the first time. It was kinda sad, but funny in a way. We heard the thud, so we jumped out of bed. He just whined a little and said, "I fell out of bed" all sad, but was already climbing back up into it. He's such a trooper!

His vocabulary skills are still expanding! He talks so well, and surprises us with big words he hears. The other day while visiting family in Utah, we were watching Grandma's fish, and I pointed out the plecostomus, and without missing a beat, he repeated it perfectly! It was hilarious!

Jackson also got his 2 year pictures taken, and they turned out so adorable! I'll see if I can post them here. He's also gone through a major growth spurt, because some of the clothes that we got him for Christmas, don't fit him anymore! Crazy!

Well, that's about all I can think of at the moment. :)

Happy Birthday!

Happy Birthday Jackson! My baby turns 2 years old today! I can't believe how fast the time has gone! I guess I can't consider him a baby anymore since he runs around and talks in sentences....he's my little man now! :) He talks really great for his age. It's so fun, because we can actually have a conversation with him!
Here are a few pictures of him....

3 days old:

1 year old:

2 years old:

On a funny note....we have learned that he talks in his sleep. Last night we caught him saying "I wanna go to church!" and later, "I wanna play the piano!". He would repeat them a few times...it was quite humorous!

Yummy Carrot!

So this was the first year that Jackson was really able to play in the snow. He wasn't too sure at first....it was really deep and he got mad because he couldn't move in it! So I had to stomp out a flat spot for him to play in.

We built his first snowman! Complete with buttons! (Facial features and buttons made of Milk-Duds, thanks to old Halloween candy!) It was his little buddy. Jackson dubbed him Frosty the Snowman. Anyway, it was really cute. Here is a picture of him with his new buddy....


And here is a picture of him checking out Frosty...but what do you think he was looking at?!

That's right! His nose! Jackson then said, "Mmmm, yummy carrot!" It was hilarious! We had a fun time!

Santa!

So we finally got Jackson out to see Santa Clause. He didn't freak out or anything, but the way he reacted was so funny! If it would've been just some random stranger, he would've flipped, but it was Santa Clause, and we've been talking about him lately. He was acting so shy, but he seemed like he was a little excited. He wouldn't hardly smile for the camera which he always does with his cheesy grin! We finally got a partial one out of him.



After we were done, we showed him the picture of him and Santa. He kept wanting to see it and would say "It's Jackson and Santa!". He also kept telling us what Santa Clause says, "Ho, Ho, Ho, Merry Christmas!". It was so cute! Now we just need to keep him away from the presents for 1 more day!

Halloween

This year for Halloween, Jackson was Pooh Bear the Bee! He was pretty excited to go trick-or-treating. We went with Mandy, Todd and Kadee. First we hit a trunk or treat, then we went around Mandy's neighborhood. After all the door to door trick-or-treating, Jackson ended up with 8 lbs of candy! Can you believe that?! But you can tell he was happy with his loot!

Jackson ready to go

Snacking along the way

Kadee & Jackson posing

Jackson with his loot!