Shed Hunting

This is Javan's favorite (and my least favorite) time of year. Shed hunting is when you go out and look for the antlers that deer and elk have "shed" from their heads, and you collect the antlers and bring them home and store them in your "shed", until your wife is fed up with the amount of sheds piling up and then you sell them for a small profit. Javan absolutely loves this. He would go every day, or weekend if I and work would allow. But alas, we do not, so Javan cherishes the time he gets to spend doing it. Ethan has also picked up a liking for the sport. So one afternoon when we got home from church Ethan started packing up his backpack and telling us we were all going shed hunting. We decided that since we were all going we couldn't really do much hiking and that a little walk out in the woods would be a good family activity.

Ethan and Ally were soon distracted by all the rocks and cool places to jump off and climb on that they stopped to have a rest, or play in the dirt, or lift this giant rock.


Ally making a nice pile of sand.


Ethan loved to climb up this hill.


Ryan got a free ride in the carrier.


Ryan and I, he did pretty good as long as we were moving, the strings on my sweatshirt were also a highlight for him.


Javan, the mighty shed hunter, did not find any sheds on this trip.


A little video of Ethan and Ally's "slide"

Jamaica, No Problem!

One of Javan's suppliers, Contractor's Heating/Cooling Supply Co., offers an incentive trip each year. If you buy so much equipment from them they send you on fun trips. Javan and I were lucky enough to spend a week in Jamaica with them. There was a group of 28 people that went on the trip. We had a great time.

Our trip started off pretty interesting though. A few months ago when we received our tickets I opened them and saw that we left on Tuesday, March 17, and I noticed that the departure time was in the 12's, so Javan and I were both thinking we left at midnight on Tuesday. So on Monday I was just trying to get all the laundry done and get the house cleaned up and run some errands so I could get us all packed and ready to go. I called our travel agent around 11:00 am to ask a question and told her I was going on the trip to Jamaica that was leaving tomorrow. So she answered my question and then said something about our flight leaving that night. I said "no we don't leave until tomorrow, Tuesday" and she said "yes, you leave on Tuesday at 12:50 am, you need to be at the airport by 10:30 tonight." I went into immediate panic mode. Everything I still needed to get done was running through my mind. Keep in mind we had a 5 hour ride to the airport and still need to get all of our stuff, plus all the kids stuff packed and ready to go.

I called Javan in a panic and told him we were leaving today and he thought I was kidding. Him and Mike were working on a bid that was due the next day, and they need the rest of the day to complete it. Then I called Shan who was scheduled to watch the kids, starting on Tuesday, and told her we were leaving today instead. She answered the phone all groggy and yucky sounding and said she wasn't feeling well and was going to the doctor. I felt absolutely horrible. She ended up having tonsillitis and bronchitis. I felt so bad leaving the kids with her feeling like that and threatened them that they better be extra good so Shan could rest.

So the next few hours were spent running around the house packing and running around town doing last minute errands and tying up loose ends. I felt bad for my kids, I was such a beast trying to get everything done that I didn't have time to play with them or love on them much before we left. I was sad and shed a few tears when we left, I hate goodbyes. We left Blanding about 4:30, we had to stop at Target and get a few things and made it up to my brother Michael's house about 10:00, had a few minutes to sit down and recoup before he took us to the airport. We made it just in time.

We left Salt Lake about 1:00 am and arrived in Atlanta about 5:30 am (which was 3:30 am Utah time), then we flew out from there about 8:20 am and arrived in Jamaica about 10:45 am. We had to go through customs and then had a bus ride to the resort. By the time we were all checked in and our room was ready it was about 3:00 pm and we were exhausted. Javan and I both crashed and had a nap for a few hours. Then went and had dinner and went to the show. We stayed at an all-inclusive resort that included our room, all meals, and drinks, sport equipment rentals, and just about everything you could think of.

We had an ocean front room. He is the view we had from our balcony. It was beautiful, and so awesome to wake up to in the morning. This was one of the two pools, and we also had a nice view of the beach.

The next day (Wed. 18) we did a canopy tour. It consisted of a bumpy bus ride up a mountain. Our driver said he had a PhD in bus driving (pot hole dodging) and he was also going to give us a complementary butt massage on the way up.

This is a picture from a look-out point on the way up the mountain. It was a beautiful ride up and had a spectacular view.

Once we got to the top there was a series of 9 zip lines we rode through the jungle to get us back down the mountain.
It was really neat, we just wished they were longer.

The next day (Thur. 19) we went to Jamaica's most famous attraction, Dunn's River Falls. It's where the Dunn's River flows into the ocean. You form a human chain and climb up 600 feet of limestone up the waterfall. This was really awesome. And the fresh water was nice, but a little chilly.

Before we went to the falls, we went to Crystal cove and went snorkeling. Javan and I kept getting in trouble from the little lifeguard girl because we kept going too far past where we were supposed to go. It was still fun though.

This was on the catamaran after we had climbed up the falls. They called this portion of the tour "the booze cruise" because they were serving free alcohol and getting crazy with the Reggae dancing (which consisting of a lot of booty action.) Most people from our group were not drinking so they were giving us a hard time, and telling us we should try it "just this once.".

The next day (Fri. 20) was our shopping day. We took a bus from the resort to this flea market place, they come back and get you in two hours which I thought for sure we weren't going to have enough time to find everything we needed. The second we walked through the gate the shop owners were hounding us to come see their shop. So you would go into one and when you came out the next person would say "come see my shop, lady, you promised." The people were very aggressive and did not take no for an answer. After about 30-45 min. the back pack was full of Jamaican goods (or as Javan said, "crap") and we were all ready to go.

This guys was Javan's good buddy. He wouldn't leave Javan alone until he came back and looked at his shop. Javan finally gave in and once he got him into his shop he asked Javan if he wanted to buy some "good smoke" which were were offered several times. His hat was huge, and full of dread locks.

This guy came up to play us a song on his guitar and get his picture with us. Then of course wanted a few bucks for his trouble.

We had finally had enough of the shopping and the group of us (there were 12) went down the street to get some ice cream at Baskin Robbins. Some guy on the street asked us where we were going and we said "oh, just down here to get some ice cream" and he said he would show us where it was. We saw it on our way to the flea market so we already knew where it was. But once we got there the man wanted us to buy him an ice cream since he took the time to show us where it was at. It was pretty funny, and Brent (the big man at Contractor's) did buy him an ice cream.

The next day (Sat. 21) we spent some time on the beach trying to get a tan, reading and swimming in the ocean.

That afternoon we went out snorkeling with our friends Angie and Ryan. This trip was way better than our first snorkeling trip. We saw lots of really neat fish, including a baby sting ray, and Javan found a conch shell. Our guide, Ronnie, that was with us told Javan to grab it and we got to bring it home. Here's Ronnie cleaning all the slimy seaweed off the shell.

Javan, Erin, Angie and Ryan after our snorkeling trip.

The next day (Sun. 22) we went to church at the Ocho Rios Branch. It's located on the second story of a shopping center. There were 16 people from our group that went and 4 others were there from a cruise ship. They were quite surprised to see us and had to round up some more chairs to fit us all in their little room. It was a neat experience to attend their meeting. The Branch President's wife is the Relief Society president and she was one of the speakers that day. She kind of just took over the meeting and was conducting and announcing the musical numbers and everything. They had asked one of the ladies from the cruise ship if she could play the piano for the meeting and then told her to pick the songs. They said at one time there were about 110 members in their branch but they were down to about 30, there were only about 15-20 people there on this day and about half of those were kids. There were all very nice people.

Brent, the head guy, had his iPhone out during the meeting and was reading his scriptures on it. This little boy had been watching him and after the meeting came up to Brent and wanted to see what it was. So while Brent was showing him the iPhone I got out the camera to take a picture of them.

Well this little boy saw me taking a picture so after he was done looking at the iPhone he came up and wanted to see my camera. So I got it out to show him. Well he just took the camera and went around taking pictures of everyone and then passing it on to his little buddy to take some pictures too. So I have about 30 pictures of people's midsections, heads cut off, blurry pictures that these little guys took. It was really cute.

That afternoon a storm came in and it was really windy and rainy so we had a nice Sunday afternoon nap. That night we had a really nice dinner with our whole group. I should have taken a picture with everyone. Oops!

The next day (Mon. 23) we did one more snorkeling trip. This was the best trip yet. On this day we saw a huge crab, a sea horse, some squid, an eel and lots of other fish. Javan and I collected a whole bunch of seashells to take home to the kids too.

This is a picture of our motel from the ocean. It the one on the right, the light purple one with a white roof. Strange color choice.

Each night we went to the show that the entertainment staff put on. It was usually some kind of dancing program, or Reggae program. One night they did a rendition of Grease. Quite interesting. But before they show started the entertainment staff would mingle around and try to get you to dance with them. Like I said before their style of dance includes a lot of "below the waist" action and rather provocative so we didn't like to participate. And also like I said before Jamaicans don't like to take no for an answer so there were a few times we wrangled into dancing. We kept it clean of course. Here is Javan gettin' his groove on with one of the entertainment staff.

On the last night the show had a fire/warrior theme. We were sitting right up in the front and we could feel the heat of the fire when they would blow it from their mouth's like this.
They all had torches and were dancing around on the stage and sometimes their flame would touch some wood at the top of the stage. Javan was sure that at any moment the stage was going to catch on fire, he was mapping out our escape route since we were right there in front. Here are a bunch of the entertainment staff after the last show.
The next day (Tues. 24) we had to leave the motel at 6:30 am to get to the airport. This is a picture of the sun rising behind the palm trees.
We left beautiful, sunny Jamaica and returned to a cold and snowy Salt Lake City. It's always sad to come home to such a shocking weather change. We had such a good time in Jamaica. It was nice for Javan and I to have a little getaway like that but we were missing the kids by the end, especially when we would see little kids playing in the ocean and having such a good time with their families. It was fun to get home and see the kids. It took Ryan a few minutes to warm up he had kind of a scared looking stare for a bit, but warmed up quick. Ethan and Ally were happy to see us, but mostly just wanted their prizes. Little stinkers.Thanks to Grandma Shannie and Mike, Grandma Debra and Grandpa Craig, Grandma Heather and Natalee, and Becky for tending the kids while we were gone. And thanks to Contractor's, and Brent, and Mike for taking us on an awesome trip, see ya next time!

Wow! This is a really long post.

6 Months Old

Are you serious? Ryan is already 6 months old. I can't believe how fast he is growing up. He is getting so fun though, and developing such a cute personality. He had his 6 month well baby check on Tuesday, and weighed 17 lbs 1 oz, and was 26 1/2 inches long. He is right at the 50% mark for both height and weight. Which is interesting because I thought he was so chubby. He's so much bigger than Ethan was at this age. The clothes he is wearing now Ethan didn't wear until he was 8 or 9 months old.

Ryan can now roll over belly to back and back to belly, and is enjoying spending more time playing on the floor. He really loves to play with his toys, but he likes things he's not supposed to have more, like paper and plastic bags. He goes nuts when I am holding a piece of paper that he wants. He loves to chew on EVERYTHING. Anything he can reach goes straight into his mouth.

He is beginning to sit up. He is still very wobbly and can only hold himself up for a few seconds. But we are practicing and he is getting better. He would rather be held though so he doesn't get as much practice as I would like.

We went up to Salt Lake earlier this month for my annual Dental Convention. Javan watched the kids while I went to classes for 2 days. The kids LOVE to stay in a motel but its hard to keep them quiet and under control. Javan took them swimming several times by himself. (I was actually there for the first time we went, taking this picture of course.) This was Ryan's first time to go swimming and he loved it. He didn't make a peep when I put him in the water. He loves kicking his legs and splashing his arms.

Javan also took them to the Children's Discover Center at Gateway. Ethan and Ally had a great time, I think Ryan had a good time too riding in the stroller. Javan was pretty nervous about taking all 3 kids out and about but he did a great job, and the kids had a wonderful time.

We also took the kids to Chuck E. Cheese. I think this has been the highlight of Ethan and Ally's life so far. They thought it was the best. Ryan was a good boy and played very nicely in his car seat. I think he liked all the bright lights and noises. (I forgot my camera at the motel so this picture was taken with my phone.)

I tried feeding Ryan some baby food a few weeks ago and he was not impressed. He was gagging and coughing and making nasty faces. But he got thrush ( ;( ) and yogurt is supposed to help neutralize the oral environment so I gave it another try. The first few bites were pretty rough, everything came back out immediately. But he got the hang of it pretty quick and loved the yogurt so I got out some carrots and he loved them too. Since he started eating baby food for dinner he has slept through the night a few times. Hallelujah!
After much worry and debate I decided to give Ryan a haircut. I don't know why I was so worried about it, I was just kind of sad to cut it, he has worked so hard to grow it, and it had come in so nicely. But we were having a struggle trying to comb it, it was too long to spike up, but wouldn't stay down when I tried to comb it over so Ryan had his first haircut. He did pretty good. He was pretty wiggly but I am used to working on a wiggly child's head so it worked out.

He looks so cute with his new "do". I think it changes his whole look, and I love it. He looks like such a big boy now.

5 Years of Ethan

Happy Birthday Ethan!

Ethan is turning 5 years old on February 18. We had his party a few days early because we are going out of town on his birthday. I can't believe he is 5 years old. I was looking back at his pictures and remembering how cute and chubby he was as a baby. He and Ryan look at lot alike as babies.

I have been saying for quite awhile now that Ethan has had the terrible 2's, 3's, and 4's. I am hoping that the 5's will go better. I love Ethan so much, he is my first baby we have a special bond. He is very tender-hearted and sensitive, and can be sweet and nice when he wants to. He does have a naughty side to him, he gets angered and frustrated very easily and is very impatient. But I love him. I love to see him get excited about things and tell me about something he has just discovered or learned. I love to see him care for his younger brother and sister and protect them.

At five years old Ethan's favorite things are his 4-wheeler, play 4-wheeler's, motorcycles, trucks, and the like, Spongebob (this is going on like 3 or 4 years now), playing with friends, drawing, taping things up, working with dad or grandpa, and holding Ryan. His favorite foods are meat (of any kind), loves vegetables (like his dad), and candy (like his mom).

Just want to wish Ethan a happy 5th birthday. I love you buddy!

Okay so Ethan wanted a pirate birthday party this year. Here he is with his pirate's treasure chest cake.
When the kids first arrived they all sat down and colored/decorated their own pirate bandana.


Here are all the mighty pirates sporting their tough bandanas.
Josh, Ethan, Garrett, Porter, Maddax, Cooper, and Ally (tough pirate)

After bandanas we played pin the patch on the pirate. Porter is leaning way back so he can see under the blindfold and pin the patch in the right spot.
I didn't plan for this but after the pirate game the boys erupted into a wrestling match/dog pile. Looks like Cooper is on the bottom. I guess that's just what happens with a bunch of boys.

After the wrestling match we opened presents and had cake. Do you think Ethan was enjoying his cake?
Then the pirates had to go on a treasure hunt to find the pieces of the treasure map so they could find the hidden treasure, aka loot bags, which contained an inflatable sword, which then led to another bout of fighting, sword fighting.
The boys (and Ally) all had a really good time. I asked Ethan if he had a fun party and he said "It was like the best ever" So that always makes you feel good. I am happy that at least for a little while longer I can still be a cool and fun mom in his eyes.

I found this video as I was looking through Ethan's pictures. It is so cute. He and Ally seem so little. I hate for them to grow up so quickly.

The Toad.

5 Months Old

I've been away from the blog world for awhile, and the world in general it feels like. And Nate is getting impatient for a new post. I have had a rough couple of weeks with an eye issue and have spent many hours on the couch. So although my eye is still not better I am going stir crazy and must re-enter the world. Be thankful for your eyes, and that you can see out of both of them.


Okay! So Ryan is 5 months old. Holy cow, my sister-in-law Crystal just had a baby (I keep forgetting to take pictures of him to post.) and Ryan now seems like a giant. I can't believe how quickly time passes. Ryan is growing so fast and he is such a big kid. He is already wearing clothes that Ethan wore when he was 8 or 9 months old. He is still waking up once or twice during the night to eat. But seems to be crying a little less, which is good. Javan has had to take care of him during the night while I was sick so I am happy that he is acting a little nicer.

He is getting better at holding himself up but still can't sit unassisted. He is so soft and squishy, I love to kiss on him.



He has rolled over once from his belly to back. I've been trying to get him to go from his back to belly, but he hasn't conquered it yet. He will spin a circle on the floor trying though.

These were their Christmas outfits and I forgot to take a picture of them on that day. Pretty cute.

This was the best treat he's had so far. He was so excited, his legs were racing. Then he would drop it and just scream cause it wasn't in his hand. The second we gave it back to him he would stop. He loves his sweets, just like him mom. These smarties suckers are the best for little kids because they aren't sticky and if they don't finish it just set it on the counter and it will dry out. This one should last Ryan quite a while.

Ally and Ryan after the bath. Ally loves to help take care of Ryan, she is a good helper.

I let Ethan and Ally play with my old camera. Ethan was trying to take some pictures of Ryan in his walker, and Ryan was trying to get the camera. Ethan is a good big brother and takes good care of Ryan most of the time.