Fist Bump

Jaxon did his first successful fist bump yesterday! He normally just high fives somebody's fist when they try to get him to do it. We had a ward party last night and he was chasing the older boys playing football. Jax tossed them the football and then gave a fist bump. Not an important milestone but still pretty cute.

Planting Trees

Planting new trees = playing in the mud. (by Luke)

Jaxon really wanted to help. Sometimes he even held the shovel and helped push dirt out of the hole. Most of the time he was eating the dirt or throwing it back into the hole.

 Once we finished the hole he decided to practice his camouflage. 

 He was happy giving orders on what I should do next. He was a great supervisor.

Here is the final product:

 This tree is an Autumn Blaze Maple that should grow large to give lots of shade and turn a bright red in the fall. We will have to post more pictures later so you can appreciate the color.

Out behind our fence was an ugly strip of gravely dirt. We asked around and got permission from the school (who actually owns the land) to plan some trees.

 After a lot of hard work digging through incredibly rocky soil we got these four trees in. Two Honey Crisp apple trees on either end and two sweet cherry trees in the middle. The bigger trees farther down were planted by our neighbors after the school said we all could plant here.

I am pretty excited about the fruit trees. Cherries are my favorite and I hope we can keep the birds away from them long enough to enjoy some. Courtnie doesn't even like 

cherries :( but loves apples :) and Jaxon loves both.

Family Reunion

My Dad's side of the family had a reunion at Lava Hot Springs this weekend. This silly boy was keeping himself busy in the backseat.

 There wasn't really a yard to play on but there was a slide and this large snake that Jax liked to play on. 

 Grandpa getting some rare Jax snuggles. He stayed there for a good five minutes.

 Jax doesn't normally last long swimming. He does not like to be cold. The great thing about Lava was the water was so warm and Jax loved it. He had so much fun.

 There is a river that runs through town so while Luke, Lindsey, our cousin Jacob, and I were floating, Jax was swinging with grandpa.

Mountain Time

Saturday we headed up the mountain with friends to ride four wheelers and enjoy some time around the campfire. Here we are heading out. Jax did not like wearing the helmet.

 Here we are a little windswept at the top of the hill. It was hard to tell if Jax liked it or not. He is usually pretty passive when he tries something new as he takes it all in.

 Luke's hair was looking pretty awesome.

 My cute little outdoor man. He was pretty excited about the fire. We watch a lot of Frozen when we travel in the car so he kept saying "Hot! Don't touch it!" like Olaf. At least it is teaching him fire safety.

 This cute boy loves throwing rocks, dirt, sand, or whatever. By the time he was done here he had as much of it in his hair as he got in the water. 

 Campfire kids. Jax is mesmerized by the fire. 

Prom

A while ago Luke and I were asked to be chaperons for a Prom that our church put on. We had a hard time finding a babysitter for Jax so he got to come too. Mostly we helped with the group photo booth, wandered the halls, and got to enjoy the food. Jax was supposed to go to sleep (hence the pjs) but was too excited by the music so Luke and I took turns dancing with him in the gym. We also got to take these awesome prom photos.

 I love all the awkwardness in this one. The photographer was trying to distract Jax with a basketball so we could do a couples shot and this was what we ended up with.

 They provided props if you wanted to do a silly pose with a mustache or bow tie.

 Our friends Zach and Brie got to be chaperons with us.

Beating the Heat

Feeling hot, hot, hot! It has been pretty hot around here so I decided we needed to get a swimming pool for Jax who loves to play outside. He loves it! We play outside most days now and Jax and Bax have a great time playing in the water.

 I love that Jaxon and Baxter are becoming good friends. They play and chase each other all the day long.

Not So Fun With Frogs

While we were at Luke's parent's house there was an encounter with a frog. Luke rescued it from a window well while Jax was jumping on the trampoline so he decided to see Jax's reaction. It was so funny!

He did not like it at all!

We put James up on the tramp to see how he did. James' reaction was the complete opposite. He went right up and tried to poke the frog and was chasing him around. These two cute boys are opposites for sure.

I love this funny little boy and his awesome personality. He makes me laugh and smile every day.

Hiking Adventure

On Saturday we went for a hike. We were supposed to hike up to a waterfall that we can slide down into the water. Its lots of fun. We went with a couple of students from Luke's work. It was nice and warm when we left home. Jax was enjoying some powdered donuts. "Bite! Mmmmm" were his exact words over and over. Silly boy.

 When we got to the base of the trail there were some clouds in the distance and the weather was a little cool but we thought no big deal. About half way up there was some lightning in the distance. Now I was getting nervous. It looked like it was right over where we were going. Luke swears it was far in the distance, at any rate I was voted down and we kept going. Next it started to sprinkle. Again no big deal we were going up to go swimming. More lightning and a lot more rain so we decided to hunker down and see if it would blow over. Then the lightning was pretty much right on top of us! No more voting Jax and I were heading down no matter what. Turns out the others were OK with that. At this point Jax started crying. He does not like to be cold and it definitely was. So we started a quick march down the mountain. We were soaking wet, running with a crying baby. I'm sure we were an awesome sight. Here we are warming up the Jax-cicle. Look how happy he is!

 Luke warming up Jax's cold toes over the car heater vents. 

Not how we had planned our day turning out but it was an adventure for sure!