The Escape Artist

Jaxon the escape artist (by Luke)

At 3:30 this morning I was awakened by a voice that said "book?" As I tried to make sense of the question Jaxon managed to climb on top of me with book in hand and sit on my chest so I could read him the book. Of course it was dark so I didn't. 

"It's time to sleep, no books. Let's go back to sleep." I said. So he laid down on my shoulder right there in my bed. I woke up enough to pick him up and take him back to his crib from which he had escaped, then returned to bed and fell back asleep.

Not long after I heard the squeak of the door and the pitter-pat of little feet but they went to mom this time and he said "out." He had to give it a try, maybe mom would be more fun. She wasn't.

"Yes you are out but it's time to sleep" said Courtnie and took him back to his crib.

The first time Jaxon climbed out of his crib was a while ago, but he only climbed out a couple times and stopped. He might have thought it was too risky. Probably something to do with getting stuck upside down between the crib and wall. Then Christmas eve after we put him to bed we were brushing our teeth and he showed up at our bedroom saying "Out. Out." Like he was very proud of his skillful escape. Since that night he has been climbing out most nights and mornings.

I was curious how Jax was escaping so when I woke up and Jax was still asleep I grabbed Courtnie's phone to take a video of him escaping. When Jax was making noises like he was awake I turned on the light to see clearly but kept the door mostly shut so I could video around it without being seen. Here are is the result.

After the video evidence of his method of escape we thought maybe just moving he crib into the middle of the room would stop him as he wouldn't have the wall to balance against. He still escaped.

Christmas 2014

Merry Christmas! 

We didn't get to go spend the holidays with family as Luke had to work, but our friends the Howell's came over to spend Christmas Eve with us. We ordered our traditional Christmas Eve Chinese dinner. I don't know when or where this tradition started but I'm all for good food that doesn't take hours to prepare. It was probably not what the Howells expected but maybe they liked it enough to make it their new tradition. We liked their peach cobbler enough to consider it a new tradition! 

 Jaxon got to open one present on Christmas Eve (it was pajamas). Then we partied until bed-time.

 We read the Christmas Carol and the Christmas story from the Bible then Jax went to bed in his new jammies. 

 Santa came to Wyoming through the storm.

 Jax was really excited unwrapping everybody's presents and didn't really care what was in them. He unwrapped one then set is aside and asked for another. He did like the toothbrushes. 

 Luke and I got matching ugly sweater kits. Look forward to some awesome pictures next year.

 Daddy is that you?

Luke and I are all set for the cold!

 Jax thought he should be able to ride the pirate ship.

Jax doesn't need toys as long as he has his daddy. 

 After nap time we all got bundled up to go hookie bobbing. Jax loved it. He kept saying yeehaw!

 It was a fun ending to a great day spent with my little family. 

The reason we celebrate: The birth of our Savior Jesus Christ. Merry Christmas!

December Shenanigans

We have been having a pretty low key December. Underneath the Christmas tree is Jaxon's favorite place right now.

 Luke and I helped with the YM/YW activity.

 

Playing in the snow with new boots!

 Family Christmas movie night with caramel popcorn.

Uncle Bruce and Aunt Nancy borrowed a couple of kitties from a neighbor for us to play with.

Jaxon loves kitties!

The Weekend (The Bad)

Sunday was not our best day. It was raining all day in Utah and our tires were a little bald so we were skating for a few miles down the freeway until we stopped for some new ones. Two hours and four new tires later we were finally heading home. Two hours from home we discovered that the road was closed due to a crash. We waited for a little while before deciding to go around rather than wait for the road to open. It added two more hours to the drive but we finally made it home. Yay! or so we thought. Luke was taking Jax inside while I got the mail when I hear a little panicked "Courtnie! Grab Jax!" There is about an inch of standing water in the laundry room and kitchen. Water is pouring from the fridge and its cascading down into the crawl space. Luke turned off the water then we went to work sopping up all the water. Jax was walking around on his toes saying "All wet! All wet!" He thought it was pretty fun to have a swimming pool in the house. We tried the shop vac which didn't work that well then went to towels. 

 The waterfall into the crawl space. There was a couple of inches down there.

 Every towel we own (plus some of the Howell's) went into soaking up the mess. Here's Luke squeezing out the super wet ones.

 Trying to figure out what to do with the crawl space. 

The water is all cleaned up from upstairs, our hot water circulator isn't circulating, and we are still trying to clean up underneath the house. Oh the joys of being a homeowner! Hopefully this week will get much, much better. 

The Weekend (The Good)

Last weekend we were supposed to go to my family Christmas party in Utah but a storm kept us in town. That was a bummer but this weekend my family was there again so we went to go to the Piano Guys concert. Apparently the Piano Guys are actually one piano and a cello. Who knew? It was pretty fun :)

 After the concert we stopped at the Draper city park to check out the tree of life. It was super cold but the tree looked awesome. I have been watching way too much Tinkerbell with Jax because it looked like a pixie dust tree to me.

 Since Luke has to work the day before and after Christmas and we are staying in Wyoming, we did the family gift exchange. Jax was really into opening the presents. He was helping everyone as he said "Open it, open it." 

We will miss everyone at Christmas but some family time and beautiful music was a great pre-Christmas celebration!

20 Months

This little boy loves to dance! His favorite song right now is Taylor Swift's "Shake it Off." Watching him makes me smile.

The other day I had thrown away a mostly empty can of frosting mostly so I would quit eating it. A little later I hear a "Mmmm" coming from behind the couch and this is what I find. Jax decided to share his treat with Baxter. I loved that he thought he was being so sneaky.

Later I hear more "Mmmm"s this time coming from underneath the dining room table. 

Loving the swings.

He loves watching the Tinkerbell movies, the number two, chocolate, jumping on the trampoline, reading books, the moon, giving knuckles, being a big boy in nursery, bubbles, washing his "hands", airplanes, and piggyback rides. I feel so blessed to have this happy little guy in my life. Every day is an adventure with him!

Family Festivities

Luke had to work the day after Thanksgiving so Jax and I headed to Idaho to catch the end of my family's Thanksgiving/Christmas party. There was tons of food, we played lots of games, six puzzles were done, and fun was had by all :) A group went and saw Mockingjay one night. Jax was trying to be helpful with one of the puzzles so I took him in another room and turned on some music for him to dance to and pretty soon we were having an impromptu dance party. It was probably the first and last extended family dance party. How can you resist dancing along with our cute Jax? 

 Here are some of us playing the largest game of Phase Ten ever.

 The family Turkey Bowl was short and sweet. It was a super windy day. All three touchdowns were from interceptions. The ball wouldn't fly straight on the long passes.  We lasted about ten minutes before the old guys packed it in. 

The Christmas party gift exchange game. We all draw a number which decides the order we pick presents. You can open a wrapped present or steal someone's opened one. 

 Grayson, Claire, and Jax were really excited by the pile of presents. They were a little less so when we wouldn't let them tear them all open. It's so fun to have babies around.

 Coincidentally my parents both opened cat presents.

 We have so much fun when we all get together. I look forward to this weekend all year!

 Jax was really happy to get his picture taken. Poor Claire was wondering why we were torturing her.

 Glad to be home with Daddy. We missed him!