Dearest Jaxon,

Little dude....I love that you are potty trained. I love not having to change diapers. I love not having to buy diapers and I love that you potty trained very quickly. But....I just need to get it out that there are a few things about you being potty trained that might be driving me crazy.
1. It used to be that a visitor could ask to use my bathroom and I wouldn't think twice before saying "Sure"! I clean bathrooms once a week and it was plenty. The toilets stayed clean. That is no longer true. Buddy....the pee on the seat, down the front and sometimes on the floor is killing me!
2. There are days that I find your underwear and shorts in front of many toilets. Why is it you use the bathroom and then just run away without any clothes on. If you take them off.....please put them back on! We don't want to see your naked bum anymore!
3. FLUSH!!!!

You are always on the go so I am just grateful you slow down enough to go potty. I guess you just get to excited to get back to whatever you were doing before so you pee fast and skip the redressing and flushing. I hope this gets better with time.
Love, your mom

Zoo night with friends!

We went to the zoo in July for Member's night. We were able to go with our neighbors and we all had lots of fun!

Jax and Dad looking at the Rhino

Jadyn talking to the Ape

Dads and Daughters

Jade, Izzy and Jax

Jade and Makeup

Just another photo shoot of Jade post do it yourself make-up and outfit selection. She requested pictures. I obliged all the many poses she insisted on striking. She was also very kind and let the day care lady know that she would be willing to do her make-up as well! I'm not sure why she didn't take Jade up on the offer! ;)

Liberty Park

We made it to Liberty Park once this summer. For some reason we didn't like it as much as we did last year. Not sure why, but at least we made it once! I let the kids each pick ONE ride.

Early Painting

The kids woke up early one Saturday morning and I decided to let them paint! Nothing like starting the day off early with a little painting! We had bought some cute wood crafts a few days earlier and they were excited to paint them. They had paint EVERYWHERE! The kids had a great time! (oh.....this may or may not have been in Jan. Not sure why I never posted it!)

Girls day out!

Back in June (I can't believe I am that far behind) I went on a Girls day out with Cher and Monica-or as we first knew each other Tiggs and Cho (and I, Duckie). I have known these girls since 1998. We were all girls camp counselors together. Cho is moving back east because her husband is in Medical school so we decided to spend a day together. We had so much fun! We started with hot stone massages, followed by pedicures, lunch at Cheesecake Factory, Makeup done by MAC, shopping and then dinner at Itallian Village. We were together for well over 12 hours and never had a lull in conversation. I love these girls, love spending time with them. Cho- you are missed already!

24th of July

The 24th of July mean my Dad's family reunion. This year is was at Mike and Connie's. We had good food, a big slide for the kids and water balloons.

THe kids eating lunch

The kids and the slide!

Mike and Connie had a great idea to let all the kids make rockets and see whose could go the farthest. So....the kids got busy making rockets. Wait...

Dad's making rockets (they were loving this!)

while the kids wait patiently (or not)

Finally! The Rocket was ready and if I do say so myself, the Sommer family rocket was by FAR the best!

4th of July

Seeing as this is about 2 months late, I don't remember too much about the 4th of July. I do know I loved having the 4th fall on a Sunday because it felt like a 3 day celebration!
Saturday: Thanksgiving Point Gardens with Jon, Ashley, Wyatt, and Brinks

After a nap we did a little night swimming at our pool and then headed up to the Temple hill to watch the fireworks across the valley with grandma and Megan's family

The kids were so tired they both fell asleep on the walk home.

Sunday: Dinner at my Mom's, visited Roy's family and then fireworks at my grandma's.

Monday: Classic Skating and Dad got to come too!
It was a great weekend!

Lagoon, tattoos and the stupid lady!

Yesterday we went to Lagoon. It was SUPER crowded. So crowded I almost decided to just turn around and go home rather than stay there! We decided to stay for a little while. Jadyn has been wanting to get a Tattoo the entire season. I kept telling her we would "one day". The nice thing about Lagoon and having a pass is that the kids know we don't ever play games. They don't even ask. She was so excited when I told her we could get them yesterday. I figured to spend money one time on something there was not a big deal. Jax picked a shark and Jade a unicorn. They both love them.

We rode a few rides, they both played around on a stage and then we headed to Odyssey. We were standing in line. Both kids were being really good. The line was moving. The lady in front of us had a girl (who was a little older than Jadyn) who was playing in the water. The girl was not listening as the mom told her to come on so she had to go and get her girl. All of us behind her stopped while she waited to get the girl. Jax noticed there was a big space in front of him and so he started walking forward. The lady then gets her girl and we all start walking. As soon as she gets by Jax she grabs his arm and yanks him backwards. I freaked and said "DO NOT touch my kid!" She seriously looks at him and says "Control your kid then". OK, so my son is in front of her because she had to hold up the line to get her child out of the water. He didn't push, or run or anything-just walked to the empty space in front of him. At this point I was FURIOUS. I said "He's in front of you because your kid is over there playing in the water!!!! DO NOT TOUCH my kid!" Her response "Control him". I couldn't let it go. I was pissed and again told her it was her child she needed to worry about. What was she worried about- a 3 year old butting in front of her? I would have had him come back by me if she would have waited a 1/2 second. I was shaking I was so mad. I laughed two seconds later when a little girl in front of her walked in front of her and the dad very quickly picked her up. I'm sure he didn't want that lady freaking out again! It was so ridiculous. I still get mad every time I think about it. I don't regret freaking out at all....wish I would have upped it a notch and shoved her like she did Jax! All types of bad words were in my head, but I did decide to not use them around my kids. Ok, none of that is very Christ like-but I'm just being honest! ;) Some people are just stupid. She was one of them.

We Remember

I will never forget 09-11-2001, where I was (driving to work-listening to the Radio. The DJ thought it was a joke. Then I called Scott and he turned on the tv), or the feelings I felt. Today we remember for all of those who lost their lives or have sacrificed much since that day.

Brands race

Brand and I had big plans about running her first 1/2 marathon together. Actually we had plans to run a 10 miler in June and then the 1/2 in July. Yeah-those big plans didn't work out for me. I ended up really hurting my foot the first weekend of June-a week before the 10 miler. At first I thought I would just rest it for a few days and I would be good to go. No. The day before the race (which yes, I had paid for) I tried to run. I didn't last 5 min. I knew there was NO way I was running 10 miles. So I skipped out and Brand ran and did great. I then decided I would go to a podiatrist and hope he would wrap it and just to make sure it was nothing major. He said some severe tendonitis maybe a tear. I asked how long till I could run. He said most athletes he says about 4 weeks. I laughed. There was NO way I was not running for 4 weeks. NO. WAY. 4 weeks later things were not better, the podiatrist was annoying and pretty much did nothing for me and was only having the receptionist wrap when I went in and woulnd't even come in to see me. Soooo..... I stopped going and started going to physical therapy. The therapy was expensive but helping with what is called Astym. It was PAINFUL. Plastic tools digging into my foot to try to overstimulate inflamation to create healing. When I got the 1st bill I realized they were charging me $164 a visist when they told me it would be $80!! I about died. But....it was helping. So since I could see they were chargin $80 just for me to do my exercises that I could have done at home I started just going for Astym. 6 weeks after I started I was back to running 20 min. Last night I ran 45 min-so I am slowly building up. I will probably not build up more past 5 miles for awhile. I was pretty much out of running for 12 weeks. I am so happy to be back at it-even if I am no where near the mileage I was the beginning of June.
Anyway...needless to say, I missed the 1/2 marathon in July. We drove down to see Brand finish and Jade was able to run the last little bit with us. Stefanie ran too, so all of Scott's family were there at the end. Brand did great and I was only a tinge bit jealous that I wasn't able to run. Brand has come to all of my 1/2 marathons to help with the kids so it is usually pics of me all sweaty and her clean! It was nice to be on the other end for once! Good job Brand!

Siblings!

Downtown with the kids

My mom was watching my brothers kids the middle of July. We decided to all go downtown and have a fun afternoon at the Gateway. The kids were all really good and we all had lots of fun!

Playing at the foutains. Gotta love their poses!

The craft project
Cousins!

Proof that Jax was with us too! All the kids playing a song (well, trying to)

St george Vacation

We have been looking forward to this vacation all summer and we had such a good time! On Wed I took the kids to Classic after Jade got out of school. I figured that would be a good way to make them really tired and hopefully they could sleep on the way down. We picked Scott up right after he got done at Mosquito, met Brand and Lewis and headed out. The kids were fantastic in the car and we made it down there in about 4 hours. We unloaded the cars and then Brand, Jade and I decided to run to the store. Just before I left I noticed Jax wasn't watching his show anymore. By now it was dark. I looked out the back door to the playground and could only see the flashing light around his neck! He decided he would go out alone in the dark! He is definitely fearless. After that we put a chair up against the bedroom outside door so he couldn't escape on his own!
Thurs pretty much consisted of swimming, swimming, and more swimming. Scott and Lewis golfed in the morning. Brand and I took the kids to the pool. Jade was REALLY disappointed when we saw that the diving board, indoor pool and hot tub were all under construction. The pools were crowded, Jade didn't want to swim in the big pool because it was really cloudy water and she was sure there were sharks in there, Jax was stealing all the kids toys in the little pool and the kids were arguing. After an hour we closed up shop. I was thinking this was going to not be as great as I thought. We decided we would go check out the other pools that I have never been to. I am sooo glad we did. They are smaller than the other pool, but less crowded, have shallow ends for Jax and 3-5 foot for Jade, which was perfect. It was great! So we swam, ate lunch, hung out at the condo playing Wii and watching Transformers (which we was left in the DVD player at the condo and Jax LOVED) and reading. We ate dinner and then swam some more! Needless to say, with no naps during the day the kids were out by about 8:30!
Friday Brand and I got up and ran. It felt great! Scott and I and the kids just hung out again all morning-Wii, reading, cartoons. Because the diving board was closed I told Jade I would find her a pool in the area that had one. I called around and found one so after lunch we decided to head over. I thought it was an outdoor pool. When we got there we realized it was indoors which we were excited about because it was so hot outside. It ended up being FANTASTIC!!! We all got in for only $11.50. They had a diving board, play set for kids and the best part....a BIG slide that both kids could go down! We had a really good time swimming. The kids loved it and Scott loved that we didn't have to sweat our guts out outside. We stayed for about 2.5 hours. The kids both fell asleep when we got home. Jax slept from 4-8! AFter dinner Jade, Brandee and I headed out to Tuachan to see Tarzan! It was fantastic. I always love going there. The atmosphere is amazing. We all had a really good time and hope we can go down next year to see The Little Mermaid!
Saturday Scott and I went and got massages. We loved that. The kids did the same hanging out (Wii, cartoons) until we got back. Scott had decided that he was going to go golfing in the afternoon (CRAZY!) so I decided to go shopping with Brand while he took the kids to the pool. Shopping pretty much sucked. The outlets there are just pretty lame. Then again, I only spent $25 so I guess that was good. When we got back I got the kids and we headed back home to get showered. They rested and watched a show and I read. Jax fell asleep around 6:00. I knew he was going to be up all night, but figured I would let him nap anyway. We ate dinner-he stayed asleep, we went swimming again-he stayed asleep. We watched a movie-he stayed asleep! He slept from 6:00 pm-7:30 AM the next morning! I was amazed!
Sun morning I got up and started packing and loading the car. I asked Jax if he wanted to shower (they had a walk in shower that both the kids loved). He did, and ended up playing in there for over an hour. He had all his toys in there and did not want to get out! We finished packing up and ate breakfast. Brand and Lewis left and we took the kids swimming one last time!
The drive home was just as good as the ride down. The kids did great and we were home in 4 hours!
We had such a good time. It was great to spend a lot of time together and just relax and have fun. We ate all our meals at the condo (Thank Lewis for cooking) and the kids were really good the entire time we were down there. I am so glad we were able to go!

Jax and his snail. He loved the snail and then wanted to show it to Lewis (who was really the lawn care guy on the riding lawn mower)

Miss Jade posing by the cloudy shark infested waters!

Scott and the kids under the waterfall
Jade jumping through the waterfall

Both kids swimming

View from our back door. Jax loved going out every morning to play while we made breakfast. Can you find him?

Found this pic on my camera. Jade loved Transformers enough to take a pic of it!

Tuachan

A very tired Jade. She perked up when the show started

Waiting for the show to start

After the show we were able to take pics with the cast. Jade and Turk-her favorite!

Jade and Tarzan's mom

All of us with Jane and Tarzan. Jane was sooo good!

Jade and me with Kurchek. She was a little nervous about this one and wanted me to take a pic with them!