Junior Jazz

Finally Jaxon was old enough to play Jr. Jazz Basketball. He has been waiting for so long. He dream when he gets older is to play in the NBA and also for the MLS. It is great to have such big dreams. We all have to start somewhere right? I forgot to tell you that at his birthday party Jax and his buddies watched the John Stockton DVD. They were all excited to see some of Stockton and Malone's signature moves.

Jax was excited to be 47 for AK. Andrei was the player the kids got to meet for the player appearance so Jaxon was stoked. They had a great season and he got to be on the same team as two of his good buddies and some other kids from school. They did really well. He would even like everyone to know that he played Shawn Bradley's son and they won. It is great to be an eight year old boy. Jax actually has some pretty good moves. He really wants to conquer dribbling behind his back but maybe next season.

It's Great to Be Eight!

Daddy's Birthday was an extra special day this year. Jaxon made the choice to be baptized into the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints. He was so excited and just a little bit nervous. We were blessed to have so many family members and friends there. Grandma and Uncle Mark both gave great talks and Brothers and Cousins sang I am a Child of God. Jaron was so sweet he sang a verse by himself in Japanese. I was a proud mom of all of my boys.

Jaxon and daddy were a little shocked when they entered the font and found the water to be freezing cold. Poor Jaxon I thought he was nervous because he was shaking. He was shivering so bad he couldn't even hold still. Good thing everything went smoothly so they didn't have to do it twice. He looked so handsome in his suit. It is hard to believe our boys are growing up. I may be a little bit biased but I think they are pretty amazing. Congratulations Jax!!

Happy Birthday Jaxon

What's a Birthday without a little bit of excitement. Jaxon got to open one present before school but then he missed the bus so while I was taking him to school Grif opened all of his other presents. Grrrr! But that was the least of our worries since Jaron was going to the hospital again to see another specialist. They were going to do a lip biopsy but since he was on prednisone they didn't want to sedate him in the office. Jax got to go to a friends house after school which is like a present because he loves walking home with his buddies. Grif got to go to work with dad which made him extremely happy too.

We all had plans to meet up at the game so we could spend a few minutes together. We had awesome seats too, the 14th row is the best we have had in a very long time. It was a great game and it was crazy getting us all there but thankfully it all worked out. Our good friends were coming to the game so they just brought Jax with them.

Finally at 10:30 that night Jax got to open his presents: more Star Wars gear, a real telescope, and a watch were part of his Birthday treasures. Happy Birthday, we love you!!

Leaps and Bounds

Grif has made huge Leaps and Bounds at the swimming pool lately. It's too bad that our annual pass had to expire. I am sure that we will get another one but not until we can figure out how to control Jar's mouth sores. I won't take him to the pool when his mouth has all of the open sores for his sake and everyone else's. It hard though because that is their favorite thing to go and do.

Grif has been the most timid in the pool and always wants to be held or just sit on the side. Not today! He was jumping in, blowing bubbles and swimming around on his belly. It was so awesome to see his giant smile.

It's Your Birthday! Have a Party

How on earth is Jaxon getting so old? Jaxon is turning 8 this year and I can hardly believe it. He wanted to take some buddies to a Jazz game this year for his party. We invited Grandma and Grandpa to come along to help with Jar and Grif since dad was working the game.

The boys loved the game especially when Bear came up and sprayed them with silly string. It was a good game and all the boys were awesome. After we got to stay and go down on the court to get our pictures taken. It was a great night.

Give a Day get a Disney Day

We were so excited to be able to work with Project Linus and make blankets. Jaxon did a very nice job on his and dad made his too. Jaron helped us all but he was just a few months too young to be able to participate in the program. My whole family will be going to Disneyland together while we are in California for my little brothers wedding. It will most likely be a crazy, crazy day. Here's to the "Happiest Place on Earth!" Thanks Disney for helping us find a way to serve in our own community.

Twins?!

Jaxon and his buddy decided to be twin brothers from another mother. They were both dressed up since we went to another buddies baptism and Casey came home with us. We decided to keep him for the afternoon and go to the Aquarium. They both spiked their hair and had the same pants on so why not wear the same sweatshirts too? They had a great time pretending to be twins. They thought it was funny that people were looking at them.

We always have a great time at the Aquarium. This time they had new additions we hadn't seen before. The leopard frog that they got their pictures taken on was a hit. Grif pretended he was riding it like a horse saying "hee-yah, hee yah!" There were also enormous king crab and northern lobster that the boys loved seeing and trying to guess how much they would cost for dinner. And one of my favorite animals the Sea Horse. They had a new display that was pretty intriguing. It didn't beat seeing the baby sharks growing inside their eggs but it was close.

The boys also thought it was awesome to see the green boa out of it's usual corner hibernation. To me is was terrifying to see how enormous it really was but at least it is behind glass and it can't come out like in Harry Potter. I think I would have a heart attack if I ended up swimming with a snake that big.


The boys also studied a new fish we had never seen before. It looked like a hunk of coral at first until it's mouth stretched up and out about 3 inches to reach for food. It was amazing. A new kind of camouflage.

Not Again!!!!!!

This may disgust you but I don't write much anywhere else right now and I just want to update what is going on with Jaron. The poor kids has suffered from these awful mouth sores for about 8 months now. The doctors have tried different things from antibiotics to magic mouth washes but the sores come back with a vengeance too often. They keep coming for longer periods of time closer together. We finally had it after day 14 of the sores last month and they started some testing. Jaron had to get blood drawn two days in a row. That was complete torture for all of us but especially him. He is so brave though it is amazing. From those tests we found out that some of his markers are high, which means something is wrong but it doesn't tell you what. We also ruled out oral herpes. It sounds gross but that is generally what cold sores are. We were trying to get an appointment with the infectious disease department but to no avail. After three weeks we still did not have an appointment. Luckily we got one with the immunology and rheumatology department very quickly. We were able to see the head of that department last week.

I was kind of frustrated when only a week had gone by when Jaron started getting the sores again. It was then that I realized what a miracle it was that he was so healthy and happy on Christmas. That was our Christmas miracle. The only redeeming thing was that he actually had the sores beginning when we went to see the doctor. There we discussed all kinds of things it could possibly be but we needed to get rid of the sores before we could do more testing. We already had blood draws done with the sores now we needed them without. So, we started him on prednisolone to see if it would help get rid of the sores quickly. It worked within about 4 days. It was great at first, the side effects are increased hunger and energy. He doesn't usually eat when he has the sores so this was a relief until he just kept eating until his tummy was about to burst and he kept throwing up. He also had so much energy it was hard for him to sleep. So we will see if we decide to use that method again. Hopefully, we can figure out what it is so we don't have to treat it that way every time.

So with the mouth sores gone we had to go in for more blood tests. He was so nervous he was shivering, dry heaving and had to go to the bathroom multiple times since he knew what was coming. This time his little arms were so cold we had to warm them with heating pads so they could even draw the blood. Finally they got him warmed up enough to get 6 vials. That is a lot of blood for one little boy. Now it is the waiting game again to see if we have anymore answers. Hopefully he will stay healthy for a little while longer this time.

Movie Night

What do you do when it is Christmas break, Daddy has a day off, and Grandma and Grandpa's puppy is visiting? I don't know what you do but we move all of the furniture out of the room into the kitchen and clean the carpets. Then we have a movie night. The boys loved having the extra space. Too bad we had to put all of the furniture back.

Happy New Year!

Can you believe that it is already 2010. Not me, I am in a tad bit of denial. That means that we are all getting older and hopefully wiser. We celebrated the New Year with Lex's family with of course delicious Japanese food and a little bit of chips and salsa too. We were supposed to bring Mango Salsa but if you can believe it the store was sold out of mangos but they had a avocados. So we went to town and made guacamole and my favorite black bean and avocado salsa. I think we had too much food but what a happy celebration with no trips to the ER .

I forgot to tell you about our Christmas Night trip to the urgent care. Jax and Jar were playing with cousins in another room when I heard Jar's broken something cry. The kids were playing and dropped him, not on purpose, but he got hurt never the less. He cried and couldn't stand up for over an hour and we tried to get him to walk to the car but he just couldn't do it. So off we headed to Urgent Care. (I really didn't want to go the the ER on Christmas) But we got there 2 minutes too late and they would not see him. So we decided to wait out the night and take him in the morning. Luckily nothing was broken and he woke up with a smile saying "Mom, I can walk!" Those are precious words to hear when you have a boy with such fragile bones. We were happy we made the right choice. Sometimes a good nights sleep can take care of a little boy who had way too long of a day on Christmas.

We hope that you have a happy, healthy and adventurous New Year!!!

Merry Christmas!

What a magical Christmas we had. The boys were so excited. Jaron had a really, really hard time with Santa this year. I think almost the worst yet. He is not a big fan, a believer, but not a fan. He barely made it to Preschool the day Santa came to visit. Thank goodness it was our good friends turn to drive or he might not have made it with just mom. Sometimes peer pressure can be a good thing. That being said it made Christmas morning that much more special when Jaron woke up and saw his big red sled that he asked for. "Mom, Santa gave me my wish. He must have put me on the nice list!"

During presents Grifin took a turn at being the cutest. Every present that was opened he said, "Wow, wow, Oh wow!" It didn't matter if it was a box or something he really loved. They all got the Wow stamp of approval.

You can see from the smiles on their faces that they were happy, happy boys!

Christmas Eve 2009

I love Christmas Eve! We went over to Grandma and Grandpa's for our traditional dinner. We have always had chowder since I can remember. We eat by candle light and the kids can't wait to blow them all out. This year it was only our family, grandma and grandpa, Uncle Mark, Great Grandma and our Great Aunt Norma. The boys kept asking when cousins would be there but they stopped worrying when grandma pulled out all of the Santa hats and Reindeer antlers. We sang Picture a Christmas to tell the story of baby Jesus and then we had our own sing a long.

When we got home the boys got to open their new jammies and then we read my favorite christmas book I Believe in Santa Claus. It is a treasure. Daddy wanted to watch Polar Express but unfortunately we would scar Jar for life if we did. He curls up and hides when that movie is on. Maybe next year Santa won't terrify him so badly but this year it just won't happen. Good night boys and sweet dreams. Grif didn't start dreaming until too close to midnight. He was just to excited to sleep. Just when we thought he was giving in he would whisper "Hi dad, Hi, Hi, Hi". It's cute unless it is 11:45 on Christmas Eve.

Christmas Singalong

What a Scrooge I was being. Bah humbug. I really didn't want to drag the boys out into the cold while dad was working, but I am really glad now that we went. It was so fun! Thanks dad for standing in the long line for us. We had so much fun singing Christmas Carols as loud as we wanted to with cousins and grandma and grandpa. It was so fun to watch the kids. They all new most of the songs, some better than others, but they didn't care they were just singing away.
It also helped that they got their free hot dogs and soda too. It was a real treat when Jon Schmidt came out to play the piano. I am now obsessed like millions of other people about his crazy piano renditions of other people's songs. He arranged one for his 8 year old daughter, here favorite song was Taylor Swift's love story but he didn't know how to end it so why not add Cold Play's Viva la Vida? Why Not? He had a cellist doing his percussion and backup with a kick drum. It was AWESOME! I had to look it up on You Tube as soon as we got home. The boys were happy I was happy and we got free tickets to an upcoming game too. So thanks mom for talking me into going.

Christmas Sunday

Our Three Handsome Boys on Christmas Sunday. Although not quite as frilly and pretty and Christmas dresses our boys couldn't look more handsome if you ask me. Grif has loved Christmas this year. He is quite good at pretending he is "Nanta". He runs around the house saying "Huh, Huh, Huuuuuhhhh!" He even wrangled a reindeer to pull his sleigh. Jaron still wants nothing to do with Santa though unless he brings his one wish - A sled!

Light Up the Days Till Christmas

Jaxon's 2nd Grade Program was awesome. They worked so long and hard on it. It was so fun to hear him count down to it. Daddy was even able to make. The day before the program Jaxon was so excited he had to tell everyone, even one of the other 2nd grade teachers, that the program was tomorrow. They learned a lot of cute songs.
I think Jaxon's favorite was I want a Hippopotamus for Christmas. They were so prepared and so cute!

Jaron...

Jaron wins brave boy of the week award this week. He has had to have his blood drawn two days in a row . The first time he didn't know what he was in for, he just knew we were at a doctor place and he didn't want to be there. He was so unhappy he cried himself to sleep in the admitting rooms very uncomfortable chairs.

The long story short is that he has horrible sores in his mouth very often. They first started about 6 months ago and would come for about a week and then go away for about a month. Now they are coming more frequently and staying longer and longer. Just imagine having sores on your tongue, gums, cheeks and lips. It is horrible. Thank goodness for chocolate milk though. It is the only thing we can get him to consume most days.

Needless to say while he has them he is completely miserable. We try everything we can to keep him comfortable but it is a difficult task. For some reason we get all the weird wild crazy things that no one knows what to do about them. For now we are still investigating and hoping for a small miracle that they will just disappear.

The Nativity

This year our Neighborhood Nativity was so sweet. Jaron and his best friend got to be Mary and Joseph. They were so sweet. The pictures just don't do it justice. They were so calm and peaceful it was incredible. After Jaron was sobbing because he was freezing and back to his normal self. Thank goodness for miracles.

Jaxon and his friends were also the Wise Men. I was a little worried about how regal they could act but they were crazy boys before and after but they were just great. We do this every year but this year was just special. All the kids involved couldn't have done their parts better. I was so proud but it made me even more proud when my mom called and said that it was the sweetest thing she had seen in a long time.

Thanksgiving Eve 2nd Annual Zoo Trip

So I have a new tradition with the boys. For the last two years we have gone to the Zoo on the day before Thanksgiving. It is such a great day to go because the animals are happy because it is not hot and there were so may new babies this year. The weather was even pleasant. We have met up with different friends and we just have a really great time visiting all the animals when there are not hundreds of people there.

The baby elephant was sleeping so we sadly didn't get to see him. BUT the baby giraffe and tigers were so fun to see with their mom's. The tiger's were wrestling with each other and then mom joined them to give them a tummy rub. There were even baby siamese crocodiles, they were like the baby alligators we saw in Florida. It was a fantastic trip to the zoo. Hopefully we can do it again next year!

Disney on Ice

When we got home from our vacation daddy had a fun surprise for us one day. He had won tickets from a drawing to see Disney on Ice from the Suites at the Arena. Who can say no to that. So I packed up the boys and rode the train downtown, which Grif loves, I just don't do it very often because it is faster to drive. It's also more work to keep the boys together and not falling down when the trains are crowded.

Anyway, we had a really fun time. You can see by the look on Jaron's face that he was probably the happiest one all. He loves to play make believe and he (like his daddy) loves Ariel. Jaxon tried to be cool and pretend he didn't like it but I caught him smiling a few times. Grif just loves everything from ball to singing and shaking his hips. I am so glad that we went it was a really fun surprise.