Baby Garrett!!

My dad and his wife Celeste had my baby brother this weekend! Garrett Clinton Roper was born on August 27th at 7:32 pm! He was 8 lbs 15 oz and 20 inches long! He is a chunker but sooooo cute! On Saturday we took Jaxon over to meet his uncle! Haha! He was a little apprehensive at first, and really just wanted to run around the room playing with everyone! But he was so sweet with him!
People ask me if it's weird to have a little half brother 21 years younger then me ... I say kinda... but not really. There are FEW things in life that I don't over-think or over-analyze. Thankfully this is one of them - he is a baby. he is my half brother. I am in love with him. That's it.
Jaxon kept asking to see the baby, once we got there he was not so sure...
He finally warmed up and started asking for the baby again. My dad helped him softly touch his hair! So cute!! He says "niiiicccce" and pets softly. He is such a big boy now when I compare him to a newborn!
Welcome to the world baby Garrett! Yes I will admit it... I am totally baby hungry now! Joel laughs at me.. but he is too! Maybe in a few months... maybe not?!?! :) Who knows!
We went up the canyon tonight for tinfoil dinners and smores!! It was so fun and the weather was perfect! I will put pictures up soon! (I'm too lazy to do it right now)

I take lots of pictures... I mean A LOT of pictures! Hubby also takes a lot of pictures. That combined with the fact that I am obsessed with my little man, leads to really long posts! I apologize... except I don't really mean it.. i love all of my pictures even if you don't! Here are some fun things we have been up to!

~Highland Fling~
Joels parents saved us a great spot for the parade!

~Riding a Horse with Grandpa~
He did NOT want to get off! They rode around for a while!
~Deer Creek Boating~
We went with my Dad and family after work! SO FUN!
~Danielle's wedding!!~
She is Joel's cousin and one of my best friends!

~Bridal Veil Falls~
Sunday Drive with my mom and sister! Lots of people there, but beautiful!I still have a million pictures I want to put up... but this is probably good for now!

SUMMER!!

I'm sure we aren't the only ones LOVING summer! We are having so much fun now that Jaxon is running around everywhere! We have spent MANY days at the pool, the park and the splash pad! My little toddler is a maniac and runs circles around his mom! But I love watching how much fun he has! (plus it makes for WONDERFUL naps when we get home!)
The splash pad in Highland is genius, it's free, super fun, entertains Jaxon forever.. BUT usually very crowded! We went one evening when Joel got home from work! Best idea ever! Still busy, but not near as bad! I was laughing my butt off watching these 2 play!
This is what he does.. runs in and out!In other random news... Jaxon is 17 months today!! Yeah he is almost 1 1/2! And guess what that means!! NURSERY!!! Joel and I both teach the sunbeams, doing that with Jaxon is a challenge to say the least! Hopefully we can start taking him soon, I know they say 18 months... but a girl can hope right? ;)
Jaxon TALKS up a storm now! His vocab list is soooo long now! I probably couldn't write them all down if I wanted to! But some new favorites are: Grandpa, Baby, Socks, Hot, What is this?, Bubba, Hot Dog (from the mickey mouse clubhouse song, haha).
I went to Costco, and found these 100 % organic cotton jammies! I bought them cuz of how soft they are! It took me a little while to realize I just bought him something in 2T!!! What happened to my baby? :( So grown up!


Yep we still do the "cheese" face around here! Dad has learned it too! Haha!Now, I am well aware I have a 17 month old that STILL INSISTS on a bottle! He wants nothing to do with sippy cups! Ugh great! Any suggestions?? Or should I just leave it be for a while? Either way we have FINALLY given up milk in bed! YAY!! (that was a big step for us)

Deer Creek "Beach"

Sunday, after church and naps, we decided we were hot and wanted to go to the beach! Sadly, Utah has no real beaches that we know of, so we decided to try Deer Creek Lake! We thought we remembered some sandy/muddy beaches on 1 side! Well we were wrong, all the "beaches" are lined with large rocks... I guess to keep boats away. We made due with what we had and really had some fun! And of course took lots of pictures! My sister came with us, and is now being officially thanked for the pictures!

The Fam!
(please don't ask me how I forgot to bring my swimsuit!)

Jaxon and Daddy playing in the waves!
(Yeah the sun was right behind us, so some of the pics are dark)

Us with my sista!
:)
Favorite picture of the day! My boys are always happy if we are near water!
He thinks it's pretty funny to eat his feet! We tell him "eeewww" and he laughes harder and eats them more!
My handsome little man dried off and ready to go home!

It was the PERFECT way to end the weekend! It was short and sweet and JUST WHAT WE NEEDED! Now... if only there was a real sandy beach somewhere near by.... hmmm?? I think it's time to move to Florida!

** Perfect evening right?? Well we thought so... till we got home and had no power for 5 1/2 hours! Lovely.**

Parades and More!

Of course we had to participate in AF Steel Days this past weekend! We started with the parade in the morning! It was fun, but HOT!! We met my dad and a couple of my step brothers there and really enjoyed it! But the floats and stuff were spread too far apart, and we were toward the end, so there were big gaps between them! Oh well! Jaxons favorite part was probably the police motorcade! He though they were amazing!!

~Watching the Parade~
~ Sitting with Grandpa and his very first sucker! He loved it! ~
After nap time we went to the Car Show. Joel loves cars, and has passed that love on to Jaxon! They had a great time looking at the vroom vrooms!

~My boys behind a Mach 1 Mustang ~

Then we met up with my mom for the car parade. We stayed for about an hour and of course Jaxon loved it! We parked in the Papa Johns parking lot, and watched the kid put a boot on our car! Luckily we got out of it! Go Joel!

~Abuela and Jaxon watching the cars go by!~

~Sitting in the big boy chair! (He was sick of the stroller by now!)~

~Favorite picture of the day! My sweet boys enjoying the car parade!~

All in all a fun weekend full of parades!
On a sad note, my poor baby is getting his 1 year molars! I have never seen teething like this before! He is cutting 2 molars and 2 bottom teeth all at the same time! Lets just say we are living on Hylands teething tablets and Tylenol! Hopefully they hurry up! We love having fun busy weekends like this! :)

4th of July

Like many others, our 4th of July celebrations are a 3 day thing this year! Which for me is so exciting! I love 4th of July... but I don't like being sick. I haven't felt very good all weekend, so our activities have been nothing extravagant! We spend Saturday hanging out, shopping and watching WIPE OUT!! (our favorite show!)
Around 9 pm we woke up Jaxon and we took our little family to Thanksgiving point to watch the fireworks! Jaxon was such a good boy and LOVED them! It was windy.. and a little cool! But we still had fun all bundled up in sweatpants and blankets! :) Jaxon liked to point at the fireworks and say WHOA!
Somehow Joel got better pictures of the fireworks on his phone then on our Nikon camera... not sure how that works! Haha Oh well!
Sunday we went to church, hung out at home, had a bbq with my mom and sister. And then woke Jaxon up AGAIN around 9 pm to go to my dads house for more fireworks! I thought he might get scared being so close to them! But he thought they were pretty dang cool! The noise didn't bother him either! No grumpy kid for us! We were there for an hour or so... went home.. and went straight to bed! Easy peasy!
Today was Jaxon's first day of swimming lessons! We are in the same class as his girlfriend Paityn. They go for 2 weeks every morning! He did so good today! Hopefully one of these times I will get some pictures!
Joel has today off! So we are letting Jaxon take a little nap, then we are heading back to the pool!! Yeah I married a water boy and gave birth to another one!! I love the sun so I am not complaining! We will probably spend the rest of the day there! Gotta Love Summer!
Hope everyone had a GREAT 4th with family and friends! Here are a couple pictures of my little man in his 4th of July outfit! Could I love him anymore?!?!

Hogle Zoo!!!

We went with my dad and sister to the zoo this weekend!! I have not been there since I was like 8 or something! So I was pretty excited! Jaxon has been to the St. Louis Zoo... (which is one of the BEST zoos in the country) but of course he does not remember at all! He slept most of the time and was only about 2 months old! Haha
So this trip was pretty much his first time and it was REALLY FUN!!! We practiced animals noises all week in preparation! Elephant, tigers/lions, monkeys, and bears! ( I was kinda bummed there are no lions or bears)
Here are some pictures! Yes, I know I OVERLOAD my blog with pictures.. but how else will we remember right?? :) So if you don't wanna look through them all I don't blame ya! :)
He loved these monkeys! They sat right by the window and he was pretty excited about it!!
Probably the favorite of the day were the giraffes! We went in the building and got really close to them! Jaxon was full of "whoas" and "wows"!!! He was completly fascinated by them! As was I! I don't ever remember being so close to one.. they are sooooo cute and I love them!!!! I was making funny noises trying to get it to look at us! It worked! :) And leaned on over!
Mama and baby elephant! They were so cute! Jaxon liked them a lot too! In fact we got him a baby elephant stuffed animal to bring home! :)My dad and Stef with Jaxon!



Once we walked the whole zoo we took the little train ride!! It was short, sweet, and fun! Jaxon thought it was a vroom, vroom... guess we need to learn choo choo! :)
He was really good at spotting the animal when we would point at it! He crashed that night from all of the excitement and slept in until 9:15 this morning! Ah heaven! We had a fun weekend! Thanks dad!

Haaaappy Birthday,, to YOU!!!

Today is Joel's birthday!!! He is 26!
I love this guy!! He makes me laugh everyday! Even when I am ornery and want to hit him! :) He can put a smile on my face no matter what! I am a pretty lucky girl! I already said a few sappy things on the Fathers Day post.. so I won't do too much again! But everyday I am reminded how much he loves me and our little boy!! And we sure love him back!!!!
A few random things about Joel...

1. Makes friends in an empty room
2. Is very good at cooking and enjoys doing it
   
3. Can come up with jokes out of no where
   
4. Loves chocolate, sushi, and just about anything new
5. Likes watching pretty much anything sports related
6. Loves the Phillies
   
7. Knows lots of RANDOM facts
8. And he hates being too warm.. very much the opposite of me!
   

Hope you have Happy Birthday Babe!!!! Love you!
These pictures are from Fathers Day! We went to my dads house for dinner and of course had to play some basketball!This picture says it all! Jaxon looks up to his daddy so much and wants to do everything he does! As cheesy as it sounds... he really is Dad's #1 Fan! :)