Jaxisms

Jax has been saying some pretty funny things lately:

Yesterday I asked Jaxon to help unload the dishwasher and he says, "Mom, I don't want to." I said, "Well, this is your job, you have to." Jax, "But, I don't want to." Needless to say, I won that battle. Ever since he says that every time I ask him to stop doing something. "But, I like to."

It has been so hot lately that I've been wearing my hair up most of the time. Jax comes up to me the other day and says, "Mom, put you hair down." Yesterday it was the first thing he said to me when he woke up. I always explain to him that I will put it down after a shower. So now when he asks he follows it up with, "You put your hair down after a shower?" Funny kid.

Jax, like me, is not a big fan of the heat wave here in AZ. He has a hard time getting in his "hot" booster seat and says he's hot almost every time we walk outside. Then if we are eating some warm food, he asks "Mom, Do you like hot?" I say, "Yes, sometimes." He says, "Me like cold." Sooooo cute!

Today Carter and Jax were eating breakfast and Carter was being naughty. Jax turns to Carter and says, "Carter, you are going to make Jesus really sad!"

Jax loves playing with the Geotrax train and uses all of the trains to make one big, huge, long train. He is really serious about it and I will try to catch a video of him being the engineer!

Jaxon has the cutest disposition and sometimes it makes it hard for me to get mad at him (even though there are plenty of times I want to). Most of the time he makes me laugh and I just couldn't love him more!

Utah and Carter's Birthday...finally!

These pics are from the D-Backs Game for the Fourth of July! I love the huge bobble head guy. Jaxon was deathly afraid of him (of course)!

We had so much fun in Utah and we have been back for a few weeks and to no ones surprise I'm finally getting to blogging about it!

Ragnar was amazing and I had such a blast! The girls on our team were so much fun and I seriously had probably the easiest legs out of anyone (I don't know how I lucked out on that one, maybe they know my secret that I'm a wussy runner)! I was definitely grateful that my last leg was only 3.2 miles too because I was beat after having only 4 hours of sleep on a hardwood, nursing room floor. I was grateful for shelter, a place to sleep, and a real bathroom though so I really can't complain!

I couldn't help but feel a little guilty the whole day on Saturday knowing I was missing Carter's birthday. To my relief though, when I got to my parents' on Saturday night I learned that Carter had been spoiled from the moment he woke up with a pancake breakfast, presents, Sonic for lunch, bowling, and Toy Story 3. Then I was just sad I missed all the fun! What would I do without grandma, grandpa, and Aunt Debbie, Janice, Kaylee, and Katie! You guys saved me... XOXO!!

We had a great time visiting Utah and I think it was harder to come back to AZ then actually moving and coming down the first time. I guess I knew that we would be coming back in a month for Ragnar when we moved, and now I don't know when I will be back next. Guess I better get something planned.

On our way home from Utah we stopped by Lake Powell for a few nights with my grandma and grandpa, Kaylee, Brooke and Troy and their family. We had such a great time and that was a great way to end our vacation...

Today we finally celebrated Carter's birthday with all his new friends. He wanted a race car birthday, so I did my best to live up to that request. We played a few games, ate pizza, opened presents, and someone hid the cake so we had to do a treasure hunt to find the cake. That was definitely the highlight of the party, as all the kids were screaming and having a great time searching the house for clues. If anyone wants a good idea that will be a hit at a birthday party I suggest this new favorite!

I finally feel like we are settling in and we are getting used to the hot weather (as much as you can). Carter and Jaxon love the pool and Carter is becoming quite the little swimmer. We went to a friend's house yesterday to swim and Carter took off his floaties and started floating and holding his breath under the water for the first time. I need to get him in lessons.

Utah Baby!!

So after only a month living in AZ I'm headed back to Utah for Ragnar and a visit with family and friends! On the way to St. George yesterday I had a cute conversation with Carter.

Carter: "Mom, Are you excited to see your sister, Brooke?"

Me: "Yes."

Carter: "Cuz you miss her and love her?"

Me: "Yes, I do."

Carter: "Good. I miss Darrin and I'm excited to see him too, cuz he is my cousin."

Too cute.

PB&J, Being HOT, Socks at bedtime, and Kids Club!

So Carter is OBSESSED with PB& J. I usually give the boys a few different options for lunch time and lately the answer is always PB&J - even if it happens to not be an option. Lucky for me, it's easy to make, cheap, and semi-healthy (especially if you use Orowheat Double Fiber bread)! I would say in the past week he has had a PB&J sandwich about 10 times. Sometimes he has it in lieu of cereal for breakfast or for a midafternoon snack. He just can't get enough!

Now that we are in the 100 plus degree weather it feels stinkin' hot. I keep saying, "It's hot!" Every time we go outside Carter says, "I love being hot!." Even yesterday when I told him it was too hot to ride his bike (105), he says, "Mom! Remember...I LOVE being hot!" Needless to say he won that battle and rode his bike :) Luckily the sprinklers in the grassy common area down the street turned on and they ran through them to cool down!

Jaxon on the other hand doesn't care for the heat. Every time we walk outside in the middle of the day or get in the car, he moans..."Mom, it's hot!" and detests getting in his car seat (I don't blame him, as those metal buckles can get super hot). Funny how different they are!

One other thing Carter is persistent about is wearing socks to bed. First of all, I can't stand to wear socks anytime of the year, but especially not in the middle of the AZ summer. We have to tried to explain to him night after night that he will get hot, but guess what he says..."I love being HOT mom." Guess that's not gonna work with him. :)

Yesterday we also went to something at the mall called Kids Club and they get to sing and dance, go to a movie and ride the carousel for free! Here are the boys riding the carousel. Carter had to ride on the eagle!

I'm a Big Kid Now!

We have definitely started to settle in and it is amazing how much the boys have grown to love it here in such a short period of time. There are a whole bunch of kids on our street and we love living on a cul-de-sac. It will be hard to live anywhere but a cul-de-sac now that we do. For the first few days here I kept asking the boys if they wanted to go back to Utah (since I really wanted to). To my surprise, they both said, "No." l asked Carter if he wanted to because I did and he said, "Mommy you can go back and I'll stay here with daddy!" I love it! Matt and his boys have been really good buds lately and I love to see that father-son bond grow stronger every day.

Carter met a huge milestone last night: He learned how to ride without training wheels! It was amazing how fast he picked up on it. When we moved we had taken his training wheels off for the ease of packing his bike. I kept telling him we needed to try riding his bike without training wheels and he said, "No mom, we need to put the training wheels back on." Yesterday I decided to have the boys ride their bikes down to the mailbox down the street. I held onto the bike pretty much the entire way from the mailbox back home. When we got back to the cul-de-sac, I was distracted and next thing I know he had figured out how to get on his bike and he kept his balance for about 15 seconds. Then he did it again, and again, staying on longer each time. It was the craziest thing as I was for sure he would have to experience a few bumps and bruises before he learned how.

Also, Arizona is on a modified year-round school too, so Carter actually starts school on July 20 and I just found out that it is full-day kindergarten. I'm not sure how I feel about all-day kindergarten but I guess we will soon find out. Last school year I had a friend whose little girl was going to kindergarten and she was so sad. I thought to myself that she was crazy and I thought I would just be excited for this new adventure for him. I am excited for him, but I am very sad that he will be gone ALL day long. I know he is ready for it though and it is the next big step for him. I just can't believe he is my son as it seems like just yesterday I was rocking him to sleep.

P.S. Unfortunately we left our camera in Utah, so I will post pictures as soon as I can retrieve it! :)

The Whole Story...

So a few of you wanted to hear the "whole story" of why we are making this move to AZ. Have you ever known with all your heart that you needed to do something but you knew it would be really hard and so you were totally resistant against it? This is how I feel in this situation and this is how it all started.

Matt's current (well past now) employer had been talking about expanding his business to a bigger facility. When Matt did his rotations for PT School he worked in Queen Creek, AZ for a PT who had a therapy pool. Matt saw how beneficial pool therapy was in treatment and thought that maybe they could implement that into this new facility. He decided to call this PT with a pool to get some details on cost and the benefits so he could present it to his boss. He called him up, and he gave him a little information but then said, "Hey, why don't you just come work for me?" He flew Matt down there and gave him more details about the job, which were amazing. From the get-go I had a feeling it was something that we needed to do, but I was SO resistant because it would be hard. Hard because I was so comfortable in my beautiful new house with my amazing neighborhood and my amazing ward and friends.

Matt liked his job, but they hadn't lived up to their end of the bargain and now that Matt saw what he could have, we realized that he had to jump on it. I tried to come up with different options. Maybe he could just get a new job somewhere else in Utah and we could just stay here. It wasn't that easy though because this had fallen into our laps and we believe it wasn't just by chance.

We contemplated, prayed, and stressed long and hard over the decision, but I think we knew from the start that this was something we just had to do. Really in my head it all doesn't make any sense. Why would we sell this house that we barely built? Why would we leave this place where I finally feel like I fit in and have grown to love so many people?

So where do we go from here? We make the big move to Arizona because we know for some reason we are supposed to be there. We remember our friends and try not to cry every time we think about them. We put ourselves out there and make new friends. We make our new house a home. We love our neighborhood and all our new neighbors even if they drive us nuts and we can't stand them. We remember that we are supposed to be there and this was the right decision even though it was the hardest thing to do and remember that we will be stronger for doing it.

It's Official! Back to the AZ heat we go!

So for those who haven't heard our big news, its official! The Shane family is headed back down to the heat of AZ. It is quite the interesting story how all of this came to be and anybody who wants to hear the story can let me know. It has been a super hard transition for me but I'm getting okay with the idea and things are all falling into place nicely.

We will miss all of our great friends and neighbors and I start crying every time I realize this is actually happening and we are leaving all these wonderful people we have come to love! :(

Matt actually left for AZ last Sunday and I will be joining him on May 15-16.

New adventure here we come! :) and :(

More to come...