Happy Birthday, Jaxson~~Reading is Fun~~(Not so)Extreme Home Makeover

Six years ago, from November 10th, 2008, we were blessed as a family by adding another member to it. Jaxson Thomas was born at 1:55 pm. He has continued to be a blessing to us.

This year he turned 6! I thought I would list six funny things about this funny boy.

1. He has a SUPER memory. He recites commercials or TV shows after just seeing them once. People leave their numbers on our answering machine, Jaxson will remember them for months!!
   
2. This boy LOVES to read. When I asked him what he wanted for this birthday, he said "Another set of books, Mom!"
   
3. He loves to snug in the recliner. ( Okay, I love it too...)
   
4. He is so kind to his brother. Jaxson invited two of Dalton's friends to his birthday party, "so that Dalton will not be lonely."
   
5. He decided that he may not get married because "I am going to be driving around all of the time." Apparently, he is going to grow up to be a police man and he will be driving around catching bad guys and wont have time for a wife. Once he reconsidered, he said maybe he could drive around for a few days, and then " stop in and see how his wife is." (I am so glad he plans ahead.)
   
6. Jaxson is just a bright spirit and he brings so much happiness and joy into our family. He has a huge heart and an even bigger sense of adventure!

We love you Jax! Happy Birthday!!

His birthday party this year was at Blast Off. Him and 10 friends played in the ball pit, ate pizza, and ran off tons of energy. He got lots of great gifts and then got to take a trip in the balloon prize vault. He had to catch as many balloons as he could. He caught 2 and won a prize.

On evening, I heard the boys giggling uncontrollably. I came downstairs to find this.

I didn't realize how much fun reading was.....

Actually, they were looking at cross sections of machines, trains, planes,buildings, and so forth. There were cartoon pictures of people in their underwear. Somehow this led to the uncontrollable giggling. Go figure...it must be a boy thing...Anyway, it makes me happy to see them doing things together and being happy.

Here are some pictures of the makeover in our master bedroom. It is not anything really major, but we have not changed anything in there since we moved in about 8 years ago. This makeover started because my mom is making us a comforter for Christmas. It is done in shades of purple. I thought that I would change up/update the walls a little since I was getting a new comforter. Here are a few photos. Notice how I used the black chipboard accents to jazz up my photo frames. I also added the rub on scroll to the lampshade and hot glued the fringe on. It was so fun to "makeover" some of the frames, lamps, and pictures that I already had.

These are pillows that my mom and her friend Judy made. They sewed them by hand!I cannot wait til the whole thing is complete. Guess I will have to wait for Christmas!!

Have a great day!!

Tiffany

Fall leaves, Halloween, and Apples

As fall quickly approaches, I enjoy watching the leaves turn to gorgeous shades of yellow, orange, burgundy, and red.

The boys and I raked all of the leaves, but I could not help but let them jump into the last pile.

Halloween came fast this year. The boys love to carve pumpkins!! They both like to do it all themselves and they each have their own ideas of what they want it to look like. Here are the results.

We did our annual trick or treating with Tammy. She was a princess this year. That girl LOVES Halloween.

After that, we gathered treats from Grandma Marti and headed over to see Grandma Dar and Papa. The boys filled their sacks with all the goodies from them too. We then went home and i expected the boys to want to go get more candy, but they started answering the door and handing out candy. They had a blast! They got to see all the kids and the fun costumes. Every time the doorbell rang, they would break out into giggles.

We have gotten a lot of apples from my friend Cathy, and I have been drying them.

Jaxson helped me peel them with our peeler. He thought that was the coolest thing!!

Here are the fruits of his labor.

Here are the YUMMY results.

I have now expanded the menu of dried fruits to pineapple, cherries, apricots, blueberries, and oranges. Mix all these delights together and you have a healthy (delicious) snack.

Getting ready for Jaxson's birthday. That kid can hardly contain himself about his upcoming party. Pictures of that next week.

Tiffany

Oh, where Oh, where, have I been?!?!

I really cannot believe that it has been two months since I have last posted. Anyways, here is an overview of what we have been up to in the last few months.

• Eastern Idaho State Fair

Mom and I always enter items into the craft areas of the fair. I entered a clear acrylic album that had all of the flower photos from our trip to DC. I also entered a western chipboard album that was of a trip mom and Ruth took up to Salmon. Both won 1st place!! I won two huge baskets of scrapbooking supplies. It was so awesome!!

Mom entered this western blanket that she made. Isn't it gorgeous!

• Creative Escape in Arizona

Mom and i went to Arizona together. She went to visit family and I went to a scrapbook convention. We had so much fun! The first thing I did was had lunch with my friend, Jena, who used to work with me at the hospital. She now lives in Arizona. It was so great to meet with her and get caught up on what has been happening in her life.

Here are photos of the resort that we stayed at. It was the Wild Horse Pass Resort. The scenery was breathtaking!! Take a look for yourself...

The resort even had its own water slide.

Here are a few of my favorite pictures .......

Part of the experience was to visit the Bazzill Paper Warehouse and the Scrapbooks Etc. Store. They were awesome!! Tons of shopping!!

Here are a few layouts that I did of my Arizona pictures for Kim's monthly kit (http://www.expressthemoment.com/)

The projects were superb, the keynote was so inspiring, and the food was to die for!
It was such a wonderful getaway.


• Soccer

Dalton started playing soccer this fall. His team was the Lightening Bolts. He did very well. He learned a lot and his coach was great.

• Hunting Season

Tracey had been doing some hunting this fall. He has gone out a few times for deer and more frequently for game birds. No deer brought home yet, but lots of limits on birds.

• Layton

Mom and I took the boys to Layton for a few days. Todd (my brother) was down there from Seattle to help out a new manager. We stayed with him for a few days. It was so fun. The boys loved the pool! Dalton is swimming like a pro

Jaxson is catching on too.

They would have spent 24/7 in the pool if I let them. We also did some shopping, sight seeing, and then had dinner with Todd. It was great to see him. We miss him and Em and the kids!!

• QVC

Still waiting to hear for sure of the air date for my QVC appearance. I am having some fliers printed up to hand out when I know the date for sure

It seems that I should have more to post in two months, but these are the highlights.

Tiffany~

A moment of downtime...

I found one.......a moment of downtime, so I thought that i better post my pictures on my blog. Here are some of the pictures from our annual family reunion at Lava Hot Springs.

Highlights:

• Jaxson was cleared to ride the water slides. He was so excited. He loved them. He was about 1 inch over the required height line.


• Dalton is swimming!! No lessons, just tips from cousin Caylie, and a sense of adventure! Way to go buddy!


• Had one night of terrible winds. Had to move Todd and family into our trailer it was so bad. When we got up the next morning, there were branches scattered all over the campground.
  
  
  
  
  
  
  I went to the Lisa Bearnson Adventure. I took a photography class at the Thanksgiving Point Gardens. It was so beautiful. The class was really helpful, the teacher was superb. Took tons of pictures of the flowers and scenery. Here are some of my favorites....

I went to the classes by my self, but ended up meeting some great friends! Here they are along with some photos of me and Lisa....
Oh yea, we went shopping while we were there. It was so great!! Here is my loot from Making Memories. Oh yea, when we toured Rusty Pickle, they had this delicious chocolate fountain for us. It was so yummy!!
Spent one Sunday up to Blacktail. We swam around and caught some fish. The weather was great and so was the fishing!!

So, Dalton started soccer. His first game is this Wednesday. We have been practicing at home and he is getting into shape.

The first day of school has come and gone. Both boys were up before the crack of dawn, dressed with backpacks on by 0700. Here is our traditional family picture.

And yes, that is a black eye on Jaxson. He bumped heads with the neighbor kid during a race. Just how I wanted to take my son to the doctor for his school shots----with a huge shiner.

The kindergartners don't ride the bus for the first three days, so I took Jaxson. Here he is in his classroom.

I then snuck over to Dalton's class and said hello to him.

We didn't go to Island Park this weekend. Stayed home and did some DEEP cleaning. Scrapbook room cleaned top to bottom, reorganized and rearranged. Same with the closets and bathrooms. Lots of work, but it was great to get done.

Taking it easy today, going to watch the last day of the Olympics, maybe go to a movie, get caught up on my blog-surfing. Nothing too stressful. Have a great week!!

Tiffany~