Good ol' St. George!!

     A few weeks ago James and I took Jaxon down to St. George with some of our very best friends and we had such a great time! The weather wasn't super warm, but it was definitely nicer than it was in Salt Lake. The boys were able to golf, the girls got manicures and pedicures and we even got a babysitter one night and were able to go to Mesquite with NO kids! Of course, me being as awesome as I am totally forgot my I.D. so I tried to play low key at the slots to not get noticed, but after only like 40 minutes I was  I.D.'d. (but not before I won 70 bucks at wheel of fortune!!) It was so much fun and even better because all 4 couples won AT LEAST a few hundred dollars!!
     The weather was really nice one of the days so we took the kiddos to the pool and Jaxon was in HEAVEN! I swear that kid was a fish in another life. He could stay in the water all day if we would let him.
     It was such a fun trip and a much needed vacation especially because ALL FOUR of us girlies are going to have new babies this summer! Yup, that's right, we are all preggo!! Our hubbies did an amazing job handling all of our "late night cravings" and emotional hormones though. We all have such great men! Here are some pics from the trip, I want to go back right now!!!

Jaxon's Christmas shirt

Wow, I am so behind with my blogging and I really have no excuse. It's definitely not because I have nothing to blog about. It's actually the exact opposite. I'm so behind that I cant find the motivation to start up again... but I AM going to do it. Starting now, with our Christmas.

We had a wonderful Christmas this year spent with our loving families and lots of friends. Jaxon was so cute on Christmas morning and he loved all of the boxes and the wrapping paper. James and I got him a "Christmas shirt" that he wore to all of our parties and it was quite a hit!



(I am 12.5 weeks, and due July 30)

Card Club

 My mom has been a member of this "card club" for a few years now, and I have always thought it was such a cool idea. And when she would come home with all of the cute cards she got I became even more envious. So, I finally decided to join! How it works is, there are 20 different gals in the club and we are all responsible to hand make 21 cards that are identical. (1 is donated to either The Festival of Trees or the Army) Then we all meet up for dinner and to exchange cards. That way I show up with 21 of the same card and come home with TWENTY different cards that are all handmade! Isn't that the sweetest thing you have ever heard of?? Cute cards can be so expensive to buy and they are never as cute as ones that are homemade. But now I have a problem of loving all the cards so much that I don't want to give them away he he. The card club meets 4 times a year and there is a different theme every time. That way we cover all of the holidays:) I have had a few friends say that they think it is such a good idea that I should start another one.... hmmm.... it depends how many people we could get to join. What do you think?!?!?!

This is a close up of the card I made. Obviously it was a Christmas theme. I used silver glittered card stock for the background, red rik-rak for the trim, green pipe cleaner for the tree and jewels for the ornaments. It turned out pretty cute i think.

What I am thankful for

Is it just me or is everyone doing the "one a day" post update on facebook about what they are thankful for? There is no way I would remember to do that every single day, but i did want to make a list  of things that I am grateful for in my life. So I will do the same kind of idea here on my blog. Rather than one a day for 30 days I will just make a list of 30 things right now.



I am thankful for...

1. My husband. He works so hard for Jaxon and I and he is the GREATEST dad in the world!
2. Jaxon. He is such a joy to our family and I am so lucky to spend most of my days at home with him.
3. My Family. They are always willing to help with Jaxon and they are always there for us.
4. My mother and father in law. For raising my husband to be the man that he is.
5. My brother and sister in laws. For always making me feel included and helping watch Jaxon.
6. My husbands job. As much as I hate the hours that he works, I am grateful he has a job.
7. The gospel. Just knowing I will be with my family FOREVER is so comforting.
8. Friends. As you get older friends take a whole new meaning.
9. My job. I have the most amazing boss and co-workers.
10. The holidays. Being with family and making decorations.
11. Our pantry. Is fully stocked with food to put on the table.
12. A Healthy family. We always forget to be grateful for this until we are sick.
13. A house to live in. James and I are SUPER blessed with our housing situation.
14. Hand me Downs. James and I have saved SOOOO much money with this one.
15. Cameras and Video cameras. I get to catch my favorite memories on film to cherish forever.
16. Sweats. Nuff said:)
17. Both of our cars. I would die if I didn't have a car to go out and do things during the day with Jax.
18. A wonderful marriage. James and I get along so great and he treats me so well.
19. Washing machines and dish washers. I hate washing things by hand.
20. Law and Order SVU. hahaha I just love that show.
21. This blog. It allows my in-laws to see what's going on in our lives from another country.
22. Cell phones. How people survived without them I will never understand.
23. America. We are all blessed to live here.
24. A baby that sleeps 12-14 hours EVERY night. I can get so much done after 8 p.m.
25. Date night. It's pretty rare now days, but I love quality time with the hubbs.
26. Motherhood. Is the most fulfilling and life changing job in the world. I love it.
27.  Fatherhood. Being a father and being a "dad" are totally different in my opinion. And James is one a.m.a.z.i.n.g DAD!
28. The four seasons. I love when the temperature changes and my wardrobe changes.
29. Family traditions. I love looking forward to holiday traditions and I am excited to start making new ones with my own family.
30. Dr. Pepper. Nothing like a cold DP after a long day.

What are you thankful for??

Happy Halloween!

This year for Halloween we had three parties to go to and they were all AWESOME! We went to the annual Crayk party at our clubhouse with dinner and games for the kiddos. The next weekend we went to the Lowry Halloween party at my aunts house for dinner and more awesome games. The night after that we had our friends party that James and I threw at our house and we had more yummy food and alot of fun games. We played the FUNNEST game at two of our parties and I would recommend it to ANYONE! It's called a "digital camera scavenger hunt." What you need to do is divide into teams with an even number of players per team. You need to make sure that each team has a digital camera to take with them.

Then you set a time limit, for our parties it was 1 hr. and 15 min. Every team takes a list of all of the required items with them and has to make sure they are back before the time is up. An example of a few of the items on the list were a tombstone, a statue, a fountain, a church, a hospital, the Halloween isle in a store, a horror movie poster, buying a pumpkin, and a few more. Some items were worth 5 points and some were worth 10. What you had to do was try to get your picture taken with AS MANY of the items as you could, but you wanted to try and make sure that your whole group was in the photo. For every team member that was not in the picture you got docked one point. So you had to be creative! The more creative you were with your pictures the more points you could get. (example, for a fountain some teams went to a SODA fountain at a gas station.) Things like that can earn a team more points. Then when the time was up everyone was back and we hooked the pictures up to the TV and everyone looked at each groups pictures and voted. It was SOOOO much fun!!!

I have way to many pictures from each party so I am only going to post some of James, Jaxon, and myself  (I mean Barney, Betty, and BamBam. ) I hope everyone had fabulous Halloween!!!!!

Called to Serve!

 On Friday, October 29, 2010 we took Lee and Connie to the airport to say our goodbyes. It was a very bitter/sweet feeling. We are going to miss them like CrAZy, but we know they are where they need to be. This mission will be very diefferent for James. The first two Lee and Connie served James didn't have to say goodbye. Mission #1 to Mexico, James went with them for those three years. Mission #2 to Peru, James was seving his own mission in Uruguay when they left. When James came home his parents only had about a year left to serve then came home. So this trip to the airport was extra hard for him. He is such a mamma's boy and he misses them so much already! So the next three years will be filled with lots of skype calls so that Jaxon doesn't forget Grandma Connie and Grandpa Lee. It blows my mind to think that Jaxon will be four and a half when they come back. All I can say is watch out Bolivia, the Crayks are comin!!!!!!

California with the Crayk Clan!

I am sure most of you already know that my amazing In-Laws have been called to serve the Lord on their THIRD mission. They were called to be the Temple Presidents in Bolivia!! They leave for their 3 year journey on October 29. So as any family would like to do, we went on one last hoo-rah before they leave. We packed our cars and headed to sunny California!! It was a very fun trip and we did alot so there are a TON of pictures sorry! We sure are going to miss Lee and Connie.. I mean President and Sister Crayk while they are gone, but we all know they are doing what they do best, serving our Heavenly Father!

J.J. knew of the coolest place that you could go too at low tide and look for crabs and star fish and things and it was really neat. All the kids loved finding crabs and looking for seashells.

We went to SeaWorld one day and it was amazing! I had never been there before and it was so cool to see what all of the animals could do and how BIG Shamu was!

Jaxon and all of his cousins got to pet and feed the dolphins.

Of course we went to Disneyland!! I was a little worried how Jax would handle Disneyland and Seaworld to be honest. He was to little to go on a lot of the rides obviously, so he spent alot of the day in his stroller. Once again he proved me wrong! He was SOOO good. I do not know what we did to be so lucky with him, but he is the best baby E.V.E.R!

Jax and daddy on Pirates.

Then one day we rented these Surrey Bikes and rode them along Catalina Island. It was so much fun and quite a leg and bum workout! We almost died laughing when J.J. just about tipped their bike over!

Another day we rented out the Wave House in San Diego. It was one of the hardest things I have ever done, ever! I thought it was going to be easy and boy was I WRONG! It is nothing like wake boarding and apparently nothing like surfing. It was so fun to watch everyone try it and of course watch everyone fall :)

My awesome mother-in-law trying it out. She rocks.

Amy in a mid-fall pose. This was the best falling picture I had, but her and J.J. were by far the best out of everyone.


And this is how all of the kids would ride the wave. Boogie Boarding style!

Jaxons stroller took over as his crib for naps during the days and it worked out quite well.

We spent a few of our days at the beach and the first few times Jaxon wasn't sure how he felt about it. The water was freezing and the sand annoyed him. Of course the last day we were there he decided he liked it.

Kaylen chasing the birds around.

All the kids were brave and played in the freezing water, especially this little dude. He was a fish in another life I swear.

Kemry is 100% girl. Leave it up to her to make a skirt out of seaweed and wear it along the beach.

One cool thing we did that I had never heard of before was in Old Town San Diego. We went to the Mormon Battalion. It was a really cool presentation the church has put together to show how 500 church members volunteered to join the army in 1846 and the journey they went on. It was really neat to learn about some of the earliest members of our church. I would recommend it to anyone that is going to San Diego!

They had a lot of hands on activities for kids too, like mining for gold :)

We had such a fun trip and cannot wait for Lee and Connie to come home and start making more family memories like this one! Good luck to you both, we love you!!