And Life Goes On...

So we are home now and are trying to get back into our lives. I started school again this week for the first time since last spring. Talk about a shock to the system. I really needed to get back though so I can finish my degree Asap. I don't forsee us moving anytime soon, but you never know and I really want to finish before we do. I have mostly been just trying to get my house in order and get us back into a schedule. Becca is going to be moving in with us soon for a little while and we are excited to have her coming. But other than that, life just goes on. I guess maybe that is why I don't blog enough. I never feel like I have much to report. But I am going to try to do better. Above is Jaxon playing with his new toy Jake got him for Christmas, and below is him eating his first solid foods. I've started him on just the most basic solids, just baby foods really. I feel like he is ready for them, and he seems to enjoy it. That's all I have for now!

Other Good Times in Utah

Another activity we did with my family was ice skating. Barbara was dying to go ice skating, and she happens to be a really good skater. But we all decided to support her in this and go skating. The girls actually did really well and were skating on their own by the end of the session. I forget how old they are sometimes and I always catch myself thinking they are too young to do a lot of things. Then they go and surprise me at how fast they catch on and I am reminded that they are growing up...much to my dismay. Above is Mckayla skating and being supported by her aunts.
This is Lyla skating with the help of her soon-to-be uncle Matt.
We also took a night and visited Temple Square. My family used to always go before Christmas, but I think I will always go after Christmas now. It was still crowded, but it was nothing like I remember it being. Usually it is so crowded that you can't hardly walk. But it was much better and I think that helped it be a bit more enjoyable. It was of course very beautiful, it has been a long time since I've been back to Utah.
This is us in front of the Christus, though we couldn't get the girls to stand still long enough for a picture. They were mesmorized and just wanted to stand by it and stare.
We also took the opportunity and threw a bridal shower for Barbara because her friends were all up in Northern UT and she probably won't be back up to my mom's until after she is married. Plus, all of her sister's wouldn't be there. It actually went very well and we had a pretty good turn out considering that we only invited everyone the day before the shower. I also got to visit with some old friends in Orem, but I am becoming more and more detached from there as time goes on. It is sad because, though I am detached from most people I knew growing up there, it is still where I call home.

Jaxon's First-Ever Haircut

I was talked into letting my sister Amber give Jaxon his first haircut while we were at my mom's. Above is the before picture, and I'll admit he is a big shaggy. Especially the sides. You can't see it in the picture but his hair hangs all the way over his ears already.
He really did pretty good for the first while of his haircut, and Amber is good at this stuff so he was in good hands.
But, he maybe was hoping to grow it out or something because he decided to quit cooperating with us near the end.
Now he is a much cleaner cut little man though. It certainly makes him look like a boy. No one can mistake him for a girl now. No more bows in the hair I guess :)

New Year's Eve

For New Year's we went to a celebration that my mom's city, Kaysville, was putting on. We actually were counting on it to be totally boring and were planning on only staying for maybe an hour or so. But we ended up having a total blast. There was live music, free food, games, and face painting for kids (pictured above), bingo, and our favorite: Kareoke. My sister Barbara's fiance Matt sang "Love Shack" with us and he sounded just like the guy in the B-52's. It was a total blast.
After midnight they had dancing in the big tent for another 40 minutes or so and we partied till it ended. I really think we were the life of the party. Part of what made it fun for us was also that there weren't too many people there so we weren't too crowded and we could be ourselves. Above is Lyla in a huge conga line.
They handed out noisemakers for everyone to use at midnight, but after many noisemakers were dropped on the floor. Mckayla started collecting them and had at least 10 of them around her neck with 50 stuffed into the basket of the stroller.
I sang "devil went down to Georgia" at Kareoke. As you can tell it was totally mormon kareoke, but we had fun anyways. That was really the best New Year's I've had in a long time, and I'm glad we finally decided to go.

Christmas in Utah

We made it to Utah late on Christmas Eve after being caught in yet another snowstorm while driving through Spanish Fork canyon. But we made it in one peice, though my windshield now has a huge crack in it and I had to replace my car battery. We had a really good Christmas with my mom and some of my sisters. Above is Mckayla trying to wear everything she got for Christmas at the same time. Amber and family came over later in the day and we had a nice big dinner together and played a really fun game called "last word". I think we are going to have to look for that one.

This is Lyla discovering the fun of making snow angels probably a couple of days after Christmas.
This is Mckayla and Lyla riding on top of Lacy, my sister Angela's horse. She keeps it in a pasture right behind my mom's house and just brought her over for all of the kids to ride one day. This was only their second time on a horse. I got on it too, but you don't want to see that picture. I felt like a 5 year old because I could hardly get myself on it, and I had to have Angela hold the rope for it while I rode. Pathetic? yes. I don't remember when the last time I have ever ridden a horse was though.
We went up to Logan, Ut to visit Hannah and went sledding together. Logan is pretty, but it was miserably cold. We covered our faces with scarves to keep out the biting cold, but in the end the cold won. If your hands are out of gloves for more than a couple seconds they start to go numb. I forgot what it was like to be in cold like that. But we still had a great time sledding. The girls even were insisting on going down these huge hills by themselves by the end of it.

First stop for Christmas: Colorado

My Sister Hannah flew down to Texas to help me drive up to Utah for Christmas, but instead of going straight there we went through Albuquerque and up to visit my in-laws in Colorado. We got caught in New Mexico in a snow storm where we were saved by a snowplow and didn't get to Albuquerque to stay at my sister Katie's till about 3:00am. The next day we had to get up to Del Norte for a big family dinner with Jake's family. I haven't been with this many members of his family in one setting since our wedding. We met 2 new kids in the family: a niece Roxy Rae, Jerald's one year old daughter, and a nephew; Nathaniel, Neah's 2 year old boy. Both very cute. It was a crazy house of kids though. We had a big dinner and opened presents together. The next day Jerald pulled the girls around in the snow with a four wheeler. They were sitting on a plastic sign of some sort. These are some pictures from those days, the bottom picture is Jake's dad, Jerry, holding Jaxon. I'm not going to try to name all the people in the other ones because there are too many of them, sorry.

Kara's Wedding

Well, we have been gone for awhile and I need to post some pictures so that Jake can see what all we've been up to. I thought I'd start with the first big event of last month. One of my best friend's wedding. We went to Dallas the week before and did her endowment and then she was married in the San Antonio temple on December 15th. It was a beautiful wedding. We went down the day before and played in San Antonio. I have to say that I don't know if I've ever been to a wedding that felt as right and good as this one. Where everyone was saying, "it's about time," and "they're meant to be together." People say those things all the time, but Kara and Danny are truly a special couple that is so meant for each other and I am so happy for them. These are a bunch of random pictures from the event. The bottom right is from doing her endowment in the Dallas temple though.