Our Little Helper

Jackson LOVES to help us with Saturday morning chores.  He will dust, vacuum, sweep, and push wet clothes into the dryer.  This past Saturday I was reaching into the washer for some more clothes and when I stood up I no longer could see Jackson, but I could hear him...and he was echoing! ;)



Moving On

About 7 and half years ago I got a job working for a local hot tub manufacturer by the Name of Bullfrog Spas. They needed a French speaker to help take care of dealerships in Montreal and Quebec, as well as their English speaking dealers in the US and in Europe. It was a good job to help put me through school and a good opportunity to be involved with a small company that was growing really quickly. They were willing to work with my school schedule and even help pay some of my tuition. It was a fantastic opportunity!

After doing dealer support for a few years, I moved upstairs to work with Bullfrog's marketing department as a marketing assistant. At the time, I still hadn't decided what I wanted to pursue in school but thought that marketing / advertising was worth looking into. After working in this department for 6 months or so, our graphic designer quit and my boss decided to give me a shot at a few design projects as we looked for a replacement. This was a great opportunity for me to do some actual design work! We never did end up bringing in somebody else and I soon found myself spending most of my day working on design projects.

My good friend Clay, our web designer at the time, took over as our senior designer and helped me along as I figured things out. I'd been studying design at school for a few semesters and as my skills improved, I started taking on larger projects. Before long, Clay moved on to another department and I was left to handle all of the design work. Everything from billboards, newspaper ads and websites, to brochures and promotional material and even trade show booths. Somewhere along the way, we also dumped our contract photographer and I was able to take over all of Bullfrog's photography work as well.

I thought my time at Bullfrog would come to an end when Sarah and I decided to move up to Logan, but Bullfrog wanted to keep me and allowed me to work from home. I set up an office in our spare bedroom and, with the exception of driving to Salt Lake for photo shoots or meetings, I've spent the last 2 and a half years working in my underwear (Ha, no not really). But seriously, It's been a great run and I'm very appreciative to those that gave me opportunities to pursue what started out as a job and has since become a passion!

After Thanksgiving, I'll be starting a new job as a graphic designer for a company up here in Logan called Icon Health & Fitness. My commute time will increase significantly from 30 seconds to about 3 minutes, but I think I'll survive. I'm looking forward to this new opportunity and for the chance to have some coworkers again.

Happy Halloweeen

Travis has always loved Halloween, but I could take it or leave it (I'd take the candy part and leave all the scary part)...this year though was SO much fun with Jackson.  Travis and I were both anxious to get off of work and get the party started.  We made our rounds trick or treating first at my work place and then around our neighborhood.

 

Jackson started to get the hang of the trick or treating game towards the end of the evening.  Each new house went something like this:  mom or dad rings the doorbell... pause and wait..Jackson says "hello?" and proceeds to knock on the door...the door eventually opens,  Jackson says "hello!?" and walks right into the house!  So funny! 

His little dinosaur costume was a hit, and kept him nice and toasty warm (I'm not sure we could have asked for better Halloween weather..fair and not really even a need for a jacket).  The little paws got in the way a couple of times, but as long as they didn't hinder his holding onto a piece of candy 100% of the time we were out and about, he was a happy camper.

The evening was made complete when the "sugar high" hit right before bedtime and we got to experience an EXTRA silly little boy!   We had a blast and are already looking forward to next year!

18 months

Sorry I haven't posted lately...I guess we have just been too busy having SO much fun with our little BOY...I'm afraid that he has moved beyond the "baby" title...we have been around a couple of newborn babies lately, and just can't figure out when Jackson quadrupled his newborn size?! Jackson turned 18 months on the 9th of this month.  It really is incredible to think about how much he has changed since the day he was born... He is such a fun, adventurous, silly, and dynamic little boy!

At his 18 month check-up we were surprised at how much he has grown since his 12 month check!  He weighed 23 lb 3 oz (20% percentile and up 3 lbs), was 32.5 inches tall (60% percentile and up 3.5 inches), and his head was 18.75 inches in diameter (70% percentile)  The doctor gave him a clean bill of health and told us to keep doing what we are doing...he also asked me how we managed to keep up with Jackson's activity level, and my response was that we just don't stop chasing until he is in bed!

Some of Jackson's favorite things right now include: being outside (anything involving dirt, sticks, and rocks), going to the park, feeding the ducks that live in the pond near our house, chasing with his daddy, building with blocks, talking on Skype with Grandma and Grandpa, riding his "bike" (3-wheeler), reading books, hide and seek, playing with his friends, and last but CERTAINLY not least watching "Elmo" (Sesame Street). We recently broke him of requiring his binky to sleep, so now he insists that he has his little bunny to cuddle with at bedtime and nap time. 

Jackson continues to develop his cute personality!  He is very affectionate and will give us, the dogs, or practically anyone/anything "love" (hugs) whenever we ask him too.  He is also fairly strong willed/independent, and isn't afraid to let you know if he is unhappy...his "fits" are pretty far and few between and seem to be over just as fast as they start (thankfully!)  He has gotten to be really talkative (I have no idea where he gets that from?!) and is saying/copying more words than what we can keep track of.  He can identify several animals (cow, chicken, duck, horse, pig, turtle, bird, snake, monkey) and the noises that they make.  He also is starting to pick out colors (his favorite for now is yellow)  He loves to point out airplanes in the sky, every bus that drives by our house, and when he can hear the "choo choo" outside.

I don't know why we got so lucky to have such a great little boy in our lives, but I sure am glad that we did!  Words can't adequately describe how much we love him and how we look forward to every single minute we get to spend making memories :)

That's a Big Fish!

The first time I remember hearing about a Tiger Muskie was on "Outdoors with Doug Miller" when I was around 16 or 17 years old. Ever since, I've had dreams of catching one of these monster fish and this past Saturday proved to be the day! At a get-together on Thursday some of us were swapping fishing stories when somebody whips out a cell phone to show us all some pictures of a Muskie he'd recently caught over at Newton Reservoir. After seeing the pictures, my friend Nelson and I made plans to head over and try our luck. These fish are notoriously hard to find and catch (their nickname is the "fish of 1,000 casts") so we honestly weren't expecting much, but wanted to at least give it a try.

Saturday came and it was time to see what we could catch. We tried a few spots without luck and eventually ended up on the opposite end of the lake. I was fishing with a large spoon Sarah's grandpa had given me in Minnesota for catching Northern Pike and after about an hour of chucking this huge piece of metal out and reeling it back in, I was starting to have doubts...when suddenly, "WHAM!" something hit my lure and I had a fish on. It didn't fight hard in the beginning and I thought maybe I'd caught a medium sized bass. I brought it in close to the boat and as the fish came up out of the murky water, we got our first glimpse of what was actually on the other end of the line. At about the same time the fish saw us and took off...now the fight was on!

It tried going under the boat and then took off for the other end of the lake, ripping line off my reel as it swam away. I only had 8 lbs. test line on and I was horrified at the prospect of this monster snapping it as it fought. After what seemed like forever, we finally got it into the net and onto the boat. It was as long as the bottom of the boat was wide! After a series of high fives and a few lines that might make a sailor blush we figured we'd better calm ourselves down before we fell out of the boat!

We were both in shock at the site of what we'd caught, in fact my hands were shaking. We weighed it, measured it, snapped a few pictures and then put him back in the water to fight another day. I immediately sent off some pictures with my phone to a few people and then called my father-in-law and long time fishing buddy to tell him the good news. 35 inches long, 8.5 pounds. By far the biggest fish i'd ever caught and now we can't wait to go try again!

We {heart} Destin, FL



Travis and I had SO much fun (despite missing our little guy) with our friends Alex and Tabitha down in Destin, FL.  We have known these guys for forever (some of us longer than others since Trav and Alex went to school together since they were both about 12 years old) and we just had a blast!  Alex found us a great place to stay in Destin Harbor that was close to everything!  We spent lots of time on the beautiful beaches, went kayaking, saw movies in the afternoon hours when it was too hot to be outside (yes even at the beach!), ate good food, saw the sites, and just enjoyed having so much "adult only" time.  It really was perfect.  Here are a few photos...

Waiting to see Transformers 3 in 3D...aren't we tough looking?!

The biggest plate of nachos I had ever seen...this picture doesn't do it justice!

The biggest and tastiest strawberry shortcake dessert I've ever eaten

The biggest beach chair I've ever sat in...is there a pattern here?!

The white sand beach

The crystal blue water

I've always wondered what I will look like in 15 years...now I know. We saw this lady while we were eating lunch one day and we were wearing the same shirt and everything.  The best part was that she noticed me about the same time that I noticed her and thought we looked alike as well...creepy right?!



BFF's

Thanks so much for such a great trip!  We can't wait to come back down again!

We {heart} Iowa

Vacations are the best! For those of you who aren't aware of what we did and where we went for our latest getaway, we took a 10 day trip and split it between Iowa and Florida. Jackson got to stay with Grandpa and Grandma in Iowa while we went to Destin for a few days to meet up with some old friends of ours that moved from Utah to Tallahassee a couple of years ago. It was definitely hard for us to leave him for a few days for the first time, but we survived and he (more then) survived! ;)

My parents were so excited to have Jackson all to themselves for a few days that I am 99% sure they didn't even realize that we weren't around...and when they did, they didn't really mind much ;) They made certain that Jackson would have everything that he needed to feel right at home and I know that he got plenty of love and attention.

Once we got back to Iowa from Florida we had a nice relaxing week catching up with family and friends that we don't get to see near often enough. We went boating, to the petting zoo, ate ice cream at my favorite local ice cream shop, had a campfire (and of course s'mores) and went to a REAL Iowa farm! We played outside almost every waking moment because the weather was unseasonably cool (mid-upper 70's) and not humid (relatively speaking) for August in Iowa.

I really did try, but simply couldn't choose a handful of pictures from that 350 that I previously mentioned. So here is a slide show of my favorite moments... (Hint: If you would like to view the slideshow slower or larger just click on it and a new screen will pop up)



Thanks again to everyone that made our trip so wonderful. We love you all!

P.S. I will post on the Destin portion of our trip within the next few days...it's past my bedtime!

Bad Timing

We are home and well from our FABULOUS vacation! However, a couple of days before we left for vacation my computer crashed (with pictures on it that I planned to blog about) Then, I accidentally dropped our camera while on vacation and now the lenses won't go in/out. Needless to say, we need to address those technical difficulties before I get to really update our blog with our latest happenings!    :(   LUCKILY....my mom is more than good about taking pictures and she was our photographer while in Iowa. As soon as I have time to cypher through all those pictures (350 taken in 10 days!!) I will put some more up....in the meantime, here is a sneak peak...

The Pfeifferhorn

The weather this past Saturday called for some afternoon thunderstorms so Brian and I decided to climb a shorter route so we could be down before the storms popped up. As it turns out, the weather was beautiful, cool, and thunderstorm free. Here's a few photos / videos from the trip:

Extreme Makeover: Storage Closet Edition

Oh Saturday, how I love you...for lots of reasons, but especially for the "get things done" time that we have on the weekends that seems to not exist for us near as much on the weekdays. I have an awesomely talented, handy, and proactive husband who cares just as much (if not more) than I do when it comes to our house.

Today, we got up, took Jackson for a haircut, stopped by the farmers market for some fresh and local produce, and were back home by 10:30 a.m. to put Jackson down for a nap.  I started going about my business with laundry and baking scrumptious Strawberry lemonade cupcakes when I noticed that Travis was also up to something...

He had decided that today he was going to do something about our storage area under the stairs that, despite being a closet that nobody but us usually sees, has been driving us both insane.  He drew up some plans, went to the Home Depot for supplies, and a couple of hours later we had a small miracle! I LOVE the finished product...I maybe have been finding excuses to go open the closet door since it was finished.. Am I a weirdo for being so excited about something like this?!



BEFORE (south wall)



AFTER



BEFORE (east wall

AFTER



BEFORE (north wall)



AFTER



4th of July Snow!

My friend Brian and I spent part of the day Monday climbing White Baldy (11,321'). In a normal year, there would be very little snow left on the peaks, but an awesome winter combined with a cooler than usual spring means there's still plenty up there. My camera batteries were dead from the start so I didn't get much in the way of photos, but I did manage to use my camera phone (Sorry for the poor quality) to get some video of the trip. Enjoy.

Yes, we are still alive

I keep on waiting, but I am afraid that life is never going to slow down!  Unfortunately for all our loyal readers that means that blogging takes a back seat. Luckily, most of you reading this also keep in touch with me other ways, so this is just going to be a recap and review. For those of you that I am less in touch with I apologize and can only hope that I will be better about updating more frequently!

So what have we been up to the last month? Well it seems that we have had SOMETHING going on every single day since the last post, but I can't for the life of me pinpoint every little thing that is keeping us so busy.  Here are the highlights...

The first week of June we drove to Heber City once to watch Travis' youngest brother graduate and then again two days later to play in the mud at the Dirty Dash 5k.



BEFORE



AFTER

Grandma Haskin made impromptu plans to come and visit for a long weekend and we had a blast spending some quality time with her.  We are so lucky that my parents come to visit us all the way from Iowa as frequently as they do! 

We celebrated Travis' second Father's day.  Complete with his favorite homemade buttermilk pancakes for breakfast (YUM!) and lots of playtime as a family...amazing how much BIGGER Jackson is this year!



Father's Day 2010



Father's Day 2011

We have been spending LOTS of time outside!  Jackson would honestly live outside if we would let him.  If the sun is shining and that boy is awake, that is where he wants to be.

Watering  the flowers like he watches us do...SO CUTE!

Battle wound from the dive out of his wagon

A few weeks ago, we were out for our after dinner/before bedtime walk with Jackson.  He had been going through a phase of wanting to stand up in his wagon while it was moving and we were having to CONSTANTLY tell him to sit down so that he didn't fall out.  Well that particular night he was quite determined to stand up and grab the handle that I was pulling the wagon by.  I had just sat him back down for the millionth time and had taken MAYBE 4 steps and as I turned around  to check on him again all I see is Jackson going head first towards the cement...I think that both of mine and Travis' hearts skipped a beat in that split second!  There was an instant bump, and of course an abrasion on his little forehead.  Poor little guy cried his eyes out (and I'm pretty sure I also shed a tear or two), but when we got home he was good to let us clean it out as long as he got to eat a Popsicle in the meantime!



A snapshot of the mountain
biking trail  in Green Canyon
that Travis has been riding
a few times per week.

 Travis and I are both currently training for a half marathon that takes place at the end of August and so we are both trying to get out and run/bike/hike/etc 4-5x/week. We bought a hiking pack for Jackson to ride in so we also have been trying to throw that into the mix on a regular basis.

In the last month or two, I have come to the realization that I don't LIKE to cook I LOVE to cook and I do it every chance that I get!

Marinated shrimp skewers
with grilled vegetables

Most recently, I made a weeks worth of freezer dinners for us and some friends. I don't know what it is about cooking that I love so much... a lot of people think that I am crazy because it's time consuming and not convenient (especially for a working mom)...maybe it's just the satisfaction of making a yummy dinner and knowing that it is fresh and healthy for my family that I love the most?!

Cupcakes for Jackson's 1st Birthday

I also have been tampering with some amature cupcake baking and decorating.  It's a lot of fun and I have had some good test runs.  I even made as many as 6 dozen cupcakes at once for two different parties. Someday I think it would be a lot of fun to have a little cupcake shop that serves treats and has an espresso bar...I can dream right?!

Brushing his teeth before bedtime

Jackson is still growing and growing. It's hard to believe that in a couple of weeks he will be 15 months old! He is such a good and fun little boy, and words can't express how much we love him.  He is very sociable (we don't think a shy bone exisits in his body), he eats and sleeps well, and loves playing with his little friends at daycare during the week. His vocabulary seems to be expanding daily...words that we hear most often are: uh-oh, ball (bah), dag (dog), dada, mama, nana (banana), tatuh (turtle), es (yes), uice (juice), cakca (cracker) ba-ba-bah (basketball).  He is so smart and can understand SO much more than he is able to say quite yet.

Playing at the park Mother's Day weekend

He literally runs (not walks) everywhere and if you take your eyes off of him for a second he is gone. Just like any other kid he hates to be told "no" and has developed a rather dramatic reaction (almost) every time that it happens...especially if we are getting close to nap or bedtime. He loves us to sing to him and  tries to sing along in his own little way. He is beginning to treat the dogs, his toys, and every piece of furniture in our house as a jungle gym, climbing on top of it or hiding underneath it.  His absolute favorite game, hands down, is having his daddy "chase" him, and he now will "taunt" Travis to catch him...it's adorable!  In some ways, it has been hard for me to realize that my "baby" is more of a "toddler" now.  I am so excited for all the memories we have to look forward to, but there have been times at night after he is asleep that I will pick him up from his crib and rock him for a few minutes just to get in that cuddle time that I miss from his younger days.

So... in a (larger) nut shell, that is us for the last month or so. I really do need to try and be better about updating more regularly, because I feel like I am missing details that I don't want to forget... and since I don't really journal besides this, I need to keep it up for posterity sake if for nothing else! ;) Happy summer everyone!

Handsome

A couple of weeks ago we took Jackson to the park to play and to take some pictures.  I know I have said it before, but Travis never ceases to amaze me with his photography skills!  I really feel that he captured not only the handsomeness of our little boy, but also his cute personality and I will treasure these photos forever! Here are just a few of my favorites... 

Do You Believe in Magic?

Today I was talking with my future sister-in-law Jana on the phone and she told me that if I wanted to know the gender of the next child I would be having someday (no I am NOT pregnant) that she knew how I could find out ahead of time...and even if I didn't want to know, she did, so I should do the test anyway! :-)

Curiosity got the best of me so I did what she said I should do...

Thread a needle, poke the needle through the eraser of a sharpened #2 pencil. Hold the thread so the pencil hangs like a pendulum. Hold the pencil steadily but loosely over your wrist (left or right, doesn't matter). The pencil will start to move. East/West=boy, North/South=girl. Between each child it will move in a circle then move on to the next child in one direction or the other.  Once the pencil comes to a stop on it's own, you will know (or have confirmation in the case of already born children) what your future family will look like.

...Sounds like a load of bologna right?!  Well let's just say that I performed the test SEVERAL times on each wrist and once on each foot (just for giggles), and EVERY time was the same result....boy (Jackson), girl, boy.  SO CRAZY!!  Just for fun I tested Travis too....his results=boy, girl, boy!! 

Who knows if it's real?!...I guess for us time will tell. Jana learned of this test from a teacher in her nursing program (a nurse with 20+ years of experience in OB practice) She told me that she has tested many friends and family members of hers who have children already and so far the pencil has been correct 100% of the time. At any rate, it was definitely worth a couple of minutes time on a lazy Saturday afternoon!

You should give it a try, and if you do, be sure to comment and let me know if it worked!

.

Measuring Up

Jackson had his 12 month checkup this week.  He took his immunizations like a champ and impressed the doctor with his cute personality.  The doctor was completely entertained by his high energy level and told me that he had seen "a lot of 1 year olds lately, but your little guy is seriously dynamic and funny!" Jackson weighed in at 20 pounds 2 oz (10th percentile) and 29 inches long (25th percentile)

He continues to be a VERY busy boy.  He wakes up in the morning and basically only stops when he eats  (because he is strapped in) and when he sleeps.  He can crawl so fast and last night he took his first tentative steps!  It is a test of true endurance keeping up with him, but SO much fun!  His vocabulary is slowly expanding and we can tell that he understands so much more than what he is able to say.  Words that we hear him say on a regular basis so far include "ma ma", "da da", "uice" (juice), and "up".  

He has mastered going up the stairs and coming back down is getting better all the time.  It is especially funny when he turns to come down too far away from the top stair so he is pushing himself backwards on his belly for a foot or two before he even begins his decent.  He is into EVERYTHING! His favorites are the towel drawer in the kitchen, the drawer in our bathroom with all of my curling irons, the remote controls for the TV, and the xbox buttons. 

Jackson loves to go for rides in his red wagon and swing on the playground outside.  He loves to "surf" on his rocking donkey made my Grandpa Atwood, read/look at any book, chase balls, chase/be chased by anyone that will take the time, push trucks, build with blocks, and carry around the mardi gras beaded necklace that one of my coworkers brought back from a conference in New Orleans.

He is completely off of bottles which he decided to do on his own at about 10.5-11 months and so far we haven't found anything that he DOESN'T like to eat.  He is still taking two naps, one in the morning and one in the afternoon totaling 3-4 hours in addition to sleeping from 7 p.m.-7 a.m.

Jackson's sweet smile and disposition are incredible to wake up to each morning and every new day proves to be an adventure, a learning experience, or both!  We are so lucky to be his parents!

ONE!

Our little baby boy turned ONE on April 9, 2011.  We had SO much fun planning his party.  The night before the main event Travis and I, with the help of my parents, were busy baking and decorating.  We had decided on a dinosaur theme and were sure to have PLENTY of bright balloons (Jackson's latest obsession), streamers, and dinosaur paraphernalia. 

As always, Travis did a PERFECT job capturing this special day for us.  I really am spoiled to be married to a photographer, these pictures are PRICELESS!....

The birthday boy with his birthday crown.  If he looks a little sleepy it's because he had just woke up from his nap and was greeted with a house full of guests and balloons when we came down stairs

The dinosaur cake we made ourselves!!  A team effort between myself, Travis, and my parents.

Color Burst cupcakes that I am am QUITE proud of...YES, I actually make those babies!
 (thanks for the idea Rachel!)

All guests were required to tattoo up with a dino tattoo....it was sort of like a meal ticket! 

About to blow out his first candle (with mom's help)

A tentative start...

....getting the hang of things.....

...sugar is AWESOME!!

The party was fabulous and everything turned out just as we hoped it would!  Thanks to all of our family and friends for making the trip to Logan for Jackson's special day and for all the wonderful food that you each contributed and special gifts that you gave to him.  We will definitely be sure to show him all the pictures and videos we took in a few years so that he can fully appreciate how awesome it really was!