This Toddler...

Jaxon is quite the toddler. First, the milestone: he is now in a big boy bed. :) My sister-in-law, Kami (who has also saved us HUNDREDS of dollars by giving us all her boys' clothes...) gave us a small children's bed frame her husband built for their kids. It's so nice, and Jaxon loves the freedom of just getting up and walking out of his room every morning instead of having to call us to get him.

Question: What do you do with a toddler who loves to see how things work and take them apart? Jaxon's number one "toy" are fans. Any fan or object that moves around in a circle. Ceiling fans, boxed fans, pinwheels, wheels in general, etc. You give him a car and he'll just turn it over and run his fingers across the wheels, or push it against the table and lift it up so he can watch the wheels spin.

Mamita gave him one of those helicopter toys where you pull the string and a propeller lifts off and flies into the air, usually landing on some rooftop. He took apart the hand-held part, and whenever I'd try to put it back together he'd just take it apart again. So we just have the propeller and he loves to spin it around on the floor. Sometimes he'll spin it on the table and then lower himself to eye level so he can actually see it balance as it spins.

He loves to play with a little bedroom fan we have. He'll just turn the switch on and off and watch the propellers start, then stop, and start and stop. It will keep him entertained for at least an hour. We even got him his own hand-held fan (with foam propellers) and he ran the batteries dead within a day. This kid is crazy about fans, and it's been like this for over a year now.

Would you say we possibly have another future mechanical engineer in the family?

A Full Plate

We have been busy, to say the least! I'll take some time away from homework right now and put it towards updating our family blog instead.

Travis has now been working for a month and we are so grateful to finally get some income. :) He is loving it and is excited for all the leadership opportunities he's been given in spearheading some challenging projects.  He loves working with his team and they really appreciate him. He also stays on top of his calling as executive secretary and has been a great help to me since I received my new calling. He even took Jaxon to our ward's Father and Sons Camp-Out!

Despite looking grumpy and sleepy in this photo, he did very well!

This semester I'm taking another online class that has taken up a lot of my time. It ends in a couple of weeks, but there's no break for me, since I start a new class the day after it finishes! A couple weeks ago, I was released from my calling as R.S. teacher (after teaching twice, ha, ha...must not have been that good...) but I was instead called as Young Woman's President. I asked the bishop, "En serio?" Needless to say, that has also kept me plenty busy. I'm excited for the opportunity to get to know these "mujeres jovenes" and work with my amazing counselors. I'll also get to go to Youth Conference and a couple days of Girl's Camp this summer. It should be lots of fun! I'm also still serving as choir pianist.

Jaxon is as adorable as ever. I'm so grateful I can spend my days with him and do fun things together. We've been spending a lot of our days outside in our little inflatable pool (best $6.00 ever spent), 7-Peaks, the new splash pad, running through the sprinklers, taking long walks to the library, or tending our little garden. I put Jaxon in charge of watering the plants, he loves it.

We also make an effort to spend time as a family. We now have two kayaks, and the extra room has been much easier for both of us (Jaxon still rides with Travis most of the time). On Monday we paddled out into Utah Lake. The wind was really kicking up the waves and Jaxon loved bouncing along in the kayak. It was fun! I wish I could've taken pictures, but it's too risky to bring a camera in a kayak. I'll have to invest in a waterproof one. Our endurance is getting better, but we still need to work on our form.

Sigh...back to homework. :(

Three Days in California

We took a short but very sweet trip to California this week. On Monday we left early in the morning and got to Mamita's (my grandma) house that early afternoon. We're so grateful to be able to stay with Mamita whenever we go to Southern California. We spent the rest of the day visiting her and my great-aunt who had just flown in from Mexico City. Needless to say, we spoke a lot of Spanish during our stay!

Tuesday morning, after a good night's rest, we met the rest of my family at Disneyland. This was Jaxon's first time at Disneyland, and he loved it. He thought the rides were interesting, but his favorite thing was watching the parade and pointing out any stairs and ceiling fans (his obsession).

This was pretty much his expression on every ride

Tarzan's Treehouse was his favorite because of all the stairs!

While Jaxon was watching the parade with his cousins and grandparents, Travis and I took advantage of the short lines and went on the Matterhorn. It was very thrilling, until the ride got stuck. We had to wait until the crew members came up and rescued us. We thought we were going to die when the bobsled behind us came zipping around the corner- but fortunately it was on the second track next to us. Scary! But we did get a special FastPass to any ride in the park, and we walked through the Matterhorn on our way down! They told us not to take any pictures, but you didn't miss much. It pretty much looked like a warehouse with boxes, pipes, dripping water, etc.

On Wednesday, we spent the morning making guacamole with Mamita and tia- two guacamole experts. Travis and I have been wanting Mamita to teach us how to make her guacamole, so this was our chance. I don't even like guacamole, but this was fantastic. Too bad we can't just go pick our own avocados from a tree in our backyard like Mamita can...

Jaxon was happy to eat the guacamole with a spoon

That afternoon, we went to the beach. This was also Jaxon's first time seeing the ocean. He loved it! He would giggle every time the waves washed over him.

We left early the next day, but we definitely made the most of our little trip!

Graduation!

Oh, how the pride swells! :) You'll have to excuse me, I feel I could brag on and on about my husband- I'm just so proud of him! Yesterday, Travis graduated not only with one, but two masters in two very unrelated fields! He received his MBA and a Masters in Mechanical Engineering. He really has the best of both worlds. Anyway, I'm just beaming with pride for him. :) He's worked so long and so hard for this- and we feel so blessed to have been able to do it all without student loans!

Both our parents were able to be there to support him, and after convocation we had a delicious dinner at Brick Oven (Travis's favorite). The celebration continues as we head to Disneyland next week! Then he starts his new job the week after. Congratulations, Travis! We love you!

Kayaking

Big news! We now own a kayak. An inflatable one, that is (like we'd really have room for a hard shell kayak!). :)

And the best part is we got it for free with our Amazon points! We wanted to start a hobby or something that our family could get into and would be a fun family tradition for years to come. And since we live so close to different bodies of water, we figured why not kayaking?

(Me trying a solo run)

It arrived a couple days ago and we couldn't wait to break it in. Jaxon just wanted to jump in the water the whole time, but he still enjoyed the ride and watching the ducks alongside us.

The three of us can fit in it, but there's less room for Jaxon to move around. It be nice to one day get another one so we can pack camping gear. Here's to a new family tradition!

Easter 2013

We had a fantastic Easter weekend. It's nice that Jaxon is now old enough to engage in some Easter festivities. On Friday Jaxon and I went to an Easter party hosted by the MBA society (unfortunately, Travis had a meeting). We had lots of fun!

There was even a fun Easter egg hunt at the end.

Saturday, it was such a beautiful day outside that Travis grilled us some hot dogs and we enjoyed a nice long walk along the Provo River Trail. We saw a swing along the way and had some spontaneous fun.

Easter morning, Jaxon woke us up bright and early. He thoroughly enjoyed his Easter baskets. Guess which basket is from us and which is from my mom? Yeah, ours is the home-made paper one. We're cheap like that.

One good thing about Jaxon being this young is that Travis and I can still enjoy his treats!

Feeding the Ducks

Last week, my mom took Jaxon and I to feed the ducks at a nearby park.

Not surprisingly, Jaxon became an "honorary duck" and was more involved in the eating than the feeding! I tell you, this kid thinks with his stomach...

This one's mine!

Yum!

Afterwards, we headed to the playground and had lots of fun on the slides and swings.

We're so glad the weather is finally getting warmer and we've been able to spend more time out of the house! Hooray for spring!