Jaeden turns 11 in Twenty-Eleven!

Yes, my first baby boy turned 11 this year!! It seems like yesterday I brought him home to protect, love and take care of...his sweet little tiny baby feet...doing everything from then on as a new mom...and realizing what it means to do whatever it is I need to do to protect him!

He sure has grown up to be a fine, young man!! He's such a sweet boy; good friend and brother, wise; a peacemaker. He is also an incredible athlete!! He's played on a super-league team this year and his coach can play him in any position as he's good and being a versitile player at whatever he does. This fall he'll be starting tackle football, *gasp*! for me...I'm definitely nervous, but definitely excited to see him play! Jason says to me, "just wait until you see Jaeden play"...and I can't wait to see his skills! He told me if he doesn't become a pro-athlete, he wants to go to culinary school and become a chef, cute!

So we had a birthday dinner for him and went to Dippidee and he picked out a giant homemade oreo for his cake, instead of well, a cake! We got mini-cupcakes for the rest of us.


The next day he had his friend birthday party...they played rounds of baseball, basketball and football...we had pizza for lunch and then did a pinata. I think it turned out really fun and Jaeden had a great birthday weekend celebration. Here are just some photos of the fun...

Playing a game of baseball in the front of the house


Lunchtime!



The gang after the presents were opened!


Jaeden and his awesome Costco cake!


After the pinata...just a bunch of hill-billies sportin' our hill-billy teeth :-E


And to save the best for last, the ULTIMATE hill-billy :D

Last day of school, twenty-eleven!

So another school year has come and gone; crazy how time flies! I have memories of the grades I attended that my boys are graduating from. Even though being a full-time mom is challenging and long-suffering at times, I realize how fast time is going, and I try my best to enjoy all of the craziness right now, because one day I know I'll look back and wish I'd taken in more of being in the moment and forget about having laundry, cleaning, dr. appointments, homework, sports, preparing meals, etc. to get done!!

The last day of school was really cute. Each grade performed a song they'd been working on and they presented it to all the parents.

Then I took a few pics of the boys with their teachers and friends and then we were off to start summah vacation, baby!! Next year the boys will be going to a new school they are building down the street from us, so its bittersweet for the boys, as a lot of their friends won't be going to the new school...

The back of the school where we all sat on the hill to watch the kids perform.


Jaeden and crew


Teagan and Xander...I got there too late to get a pic with all of his friends!


Teagan and his most awesome teacher, Mrs. Beck!


Cameron and some friends

Garden bounty

So it was exciting to pick our first harvest of "easter egg" radishes. They grow well in cooler weather, and we had an extended cooler weather season here, so they were super-easy to grow. They are called "easter egg" for their variety of colors. I basically grew them because I've never grown rashishes; I'm not particularly fond of radishes, but nothing beats that garden-fresh taste and quality you get from raising your own veggies! My boys actually liked them and ate them all up!

Then we were able to harvest some broccoli and spinach, both great veggies that thrive in cooler weather...kinda sucks with the spinach, though, because once the hot weather sets in, it quickly turns to seed and gone are the wonderful sprigs of fresh spinach to eat :( I hope to one day have a kind of greenhouse so I can grown veggies when they're out of season.

Here are some from the harvest later in the season, in September...we did manage to get 3 pears from our fruit tree that I planted last year so I was surprised to see that it actually produced fruit for us so soon, so that was an unexpected delight! We would have had more, but Payton couldn't help himself from yanking off the little oblong fruits that were growing from the branches :)

Aside from our harvest, we've had a lot of bugs this year; it really sucks!! I'm trying to do an organic garden as much as possible, but we've been inundated this year! I thought that by getting our fence up would help keep the bugs from finding them, but they never seem to have a problem finding them, grrr...

Memorial Day 2011

We decided to go downtown to the Salt Lake City Cemetary and visit Jason's grandfather and his cousin, Ryan, who have passed away. We last visited his grandpa Marv's grave, a couple of years ago, but haven't ever made it to Ryan's, so it was nice to be able to pay our respects to them with our boys.

Marv passed away in November of 2007 from cancer and Ryan passed away in May of 1998by suicide.

We also took the boys over to the graves of all of the soldiers who have died and tried to explain to the boys just what giving their lives meant...I don't know how much actually sunk in, but hopefully something amidst all of the complaints of going to see something else ;)




Here we are at Grandpa Marv's grave


The boys at Ryan's grave

Braxton graduates from preschool!

So my 4th baby boy graduated from preschool!! *sniff sniff

I was recommended a lady who does preschool from her home by a friend of mine, called Stepping Stones preschool, across the road in another neighborhood, so I decided to enroll him. There are higher-end preschool's that cater to the elite (lol) but I wasn't willing to drop over a bill per month on education so went for the home-preschool setting, and I couldn't have been happier.

Here are some highlights of his graduation day. Braxton caught on really quick learning his alphabet and letters, and writing his name. Braxton sure has a zest for life and learning, I love it!! I love him :)

Braxton and his classmates



Mommy and Braxie :)


Braxton and Miss Andrea :)

Mommy-Son date!

So I was able to spend the time with only ONE of my precious boys, just the two of us, while Jason went with the 4 older boys to a Father/sons campout. Going from 5 down to 1 sure simplifies things, that's for sure. We had Payton's birthday pictures taken and needed to go and pick them up, so we made the most of our little adventure to the mall.

We picked up his pictures, got a bite to eat, and then went on the carousel, first time for Payton! Here are some highlights of his first time riding on a 'bunny' :)