Karting league

Sean was recently invited by his friend Derek to join a karting league at Miller Motorsports Park. Anyone who knows Sean well knows this is pretty much a dream come true. J-dawg and I went out and watched him race last Tuesday night and it was a lot of fun. The guys are very serious about it. A few of them (including Sean) even wore their special racing shoes. First they do a qualifying race-- their lap times determine their position for the second race. Anyway, these aren't your everyday go-karts. These babies go up to 55 mph!

Beginning of the first race:

Sean making a pass around one of the turns:

Like father, like son!

S'mores

Sean saw a package of giant marshmallows for sale begging to be made into s'mores. We went up American Fork Canyon with my sister's family and had a great time! The weather was perfect.

The s'mores were HUGE! Dave had the right idea when he started making his with full graham crackers instead of breaking them in half. Sean came up with his own masterpiece by shoving a Reeses peanut butter cup (the regular sized ones) into the middle of the roasted marshmallow--yes, the marshmallows were that big!


We highly recommend the giant marshmallows! We found ours at Winco in Orem if you want to give them a try!

Garden: attempt 2

We planted our entire garden about three weeks ago-- you know, before it decided to freeze and snow randomly last week. Our cold-weather stuff survived, but pretty much everything else bit the bullet. Just the other day my dad told me, "If the Lord wanted me to plant a garden he wouldn't freeze it every year." Well said.

I went out and re-bought my tomatoes, some of my peppers, and squash. I bought the biggest plants they had and we replanted everything Monday. We had such great success last year that I have high hopes this time.

The goods:
Pumpkin
Cantelope
Potatoes: red and Yukon gold
Walla Walla onions
green onions
green beans
Lettuce
Spinach
Tomatoes: Roma, cherry, better boy, whopper, beefsteak, jetstar
Tomatillo
Bell peppers: green/red, yellow
Jalepeno peppers
zucchini
sunflower

Let's hope our hard work pays off!

P.S. I realize our rows are built up really high and they look kinda funny, but we did it on purpose because we had problems with bedrock in a few areas last year

Pudding and play

My friend Shannon came up with idea to let the kids get messy this week at playgroup and use pudding as finger paint. We had the kids in swim suits (crazy how it snowed just a few days ago) and let them go at it. Jackson loved it. He had fun "painting" but even more fun eating. He seriously consumed a ridiculous amount of pudding. I must admit, when I was mixing it up it suddenly looked like the most delicious thing on the planet and I made a mental note to make it more often! Anyway, here are a few pics:

Still fairly clean and lots of room left in his tummy

Getting into it!

I'm sure my neighbor will love the little pudding handprints Jackson and Davis left on her porch!

I call this one the "money shot." ;)

His stomach was so full I was sure he was going to pop. I figured if I was going to let him use pudding as paint I should just let him go all out. That is what a responsible parent would do, right?

Watch out for the train tracks

We decided to go for a family bike ride Sunday and apparently I need training wheels. We were just cruising along when we had to cross some train tracks. In my head I'm thinking I need to be careful to keep my tires perpendicular to the tracks. That plan worked just fine until the dang tracks curved! haha My front tire got stuck in the tracks and my bike stopped-- I on the other hand did not. I crashed onto my left side and used my hands to try and brace myself. The result was road rash on both of my hands, a cut ankle, and a bruised shoulder, knee, hip and ego ;). Right after it happened it didn't hurt too bad, but that night I couldn't sleep because my hands felt like they were on fire. I woke up Monday morning feeling like I'd been hit by a car. My crash wasn't even bad, so I can't imagine how painful something like a motorcycle accident would be! Now that it's been a few days I feel much better and my hands are healing fast:


Moral of the story: watch out for train tracks!

A Happy Mother's Day

Sean and I have two of the best moms in the world and we are so grateful for them! I am so glad I have a mom who is such a great example and friend and taught me to love things like cooking. And I am lucky I have a mother-in-law I love! I'm grateful she raised Sean to have a sense of humor, be honest and hard-working, and the best husband and friend I could ask for.

I had a fantastic Mother's Day this year. Sean and Jackson made it a really fun day. Sean made me both breakfast in bed and a yummy dinner. I got a new purse (hooray! My duffel bag will no longer adorne my arm!) and Sean surprised me with a gift card for a pedicure. I felt very pampered.

I told Sean one of the things I wanted to do was get some pictures of Jackson and I together. A lot of times I am the one behind the camera so we headed outside and Sean took a bunch for me. Here are some of my favorites of me and my handsome boy :)

A few days ago my uncle e-mailed me a few pictures of when I was little. Usually I think Jackson looks mostly like Sean, but I did notice some similarities to me in these pictures.

Curls, chubby cheeks and round little tummy :)

And I had to throw this last picture in because it just makes me laugh! I'm not sure why I was furrowing my brow, but this is pretty darn close to the exact face Jackson makes when he's not happy!

I hope everyone had a happy Mother's Day!

Sippy cup: 1 Jackson: 0

Jackson has had kind of a rough week. As you can see in the photo above, his sippy cup took out his lower lip and part of his cheek earlier this week. Not really sure what happened, but I think he was running and drinking at the same time and did a face plant. He had a fat lip and it was cut pretty bad on the inside. I am happy to report all teeth are still intact! Poor kid.

Jackson's also had a cough that won't go away. It started months ago when he got sick and he just can't shake it. I took him into the pediatrician again yesterday and they decided to do a chest x-ray. He HATED the x-ray. Screamed the entire time and had big tears coming down his cheeks :( The x-ray shows evidence of childhood asthma. He's got his own little inhaler now and it should help. The good news is the doctor said if he does have it, it is very likely he will grow out of it. The cough doesn't seem to bug him, but I'm hoping it will be gone soon.

Here are some recent pictures and a video of J-dawg!

The curl hawk

One very tired little boy

Swimming- He LOVES going down the slides

Happy :)

With Mother's Day being tomorrow, I just want to say I am incredibly thankful for this little guy. Every night I tell him "You are the best part of every day" and "I love your guts!" He is such a sweet kid. So loving and smart and funny and happy. I feel very blessed that I get to be the one he calls "mama."