The Beach!!!!

Scotts family has a tradition. Each year his mom gets a beach house (the location can vary) and we all meet up and spend up to a week together. This year we did Newport. It was a ton of fun! The house was just one house away from the boardwalk and right next to Newport Peir. Abbie, Jack, Nana Lisa, and Abbie! Lisa is an amazing Nana. She loves loves loves her Grandkids and of course they LOVE her in return. She is always playing with them and helping us moms out. It is so great! Thank you Lisa for such a fun week!
Davis is such a stud. He was so funny to watch out on the beach. Occasionally he would take a handful of sand and put it into his mouth. But, I think he learned quickly that it didn't taste all that great! He also loved the water. He was out crawling through the waves and loving the water as it splashed up on him. Jenna was so cute with him, she was right there on her hands and knees in the sand always playing with him. She is such a great mom!
Jackson of course was terrified of the water... suprise suprise? No. But, he loved the sand. He was always covered head to toe, and like Davis got a few handfuls of sand in his mouth as well.
Me and Jack eating ice cream cones on NewPort Peir. We brought a kite to fly out on the beach. It was so fun. There was a perfect amount of wind blowing, the kites went right up in the sky. What is a day at the beach without a kite right?It was a nice vacation for me. It was great to beable to take a nap during the day, relax on the beach, take occasional walks, and relax with family. It was so fun to spend time with the Randalls! I miss you all already and can't wait for next years beach trip. Thanks Lisa for such a fun week and for all the planning that you put into this family vacation!

Sea World!!!

We decided to spend a day at Sea World. Here are all of the strollers and little cousins - ready to see some animals!

Shamu is always a must. You just can't go to Sea World and not see Shamu. Jackson loved it, and so did I! It really is incredible what these whales are trained to do!
Me and Jack with the flamingo's.
Some of us went to a cool show with clowns and acrobats. It was kindof like a circus on water? It was incredible to watch.
The dolphins were my favorite. They are so cute.
Most of you know that Jack is kindof a terrified kid. He is nervous to do just about anything. They have a section at Sea World that has a few rides and some playground equipment. Scott and I took a break from the animals and decided to try it out. To our suprise, Jacks loved it! He loved the rides. It was so fun watching him laugh and enjoy himself. I think this means we need to get him out to Disney Land!At the end of the day Scott, Brad and Jenna decided to do the roller coaster ride. Its kinof like a "Splash Mountain". So of course, they all got soaking. But thankfully it was at the end of the day so after they we done we all got in our cars and headed home.

Sea World was so much fun. It was so fun to watch the animals and see the kids reactions. And it was a beautiful day. The weather was perfect!

Newport to Hunington Bike Ride...

One morning everybody decided to rent some bikes and bike trailers and ride from our beach house in Newport to Kristens house in Hunington. I think its about a 7 or 8 mile ride - so not too bad. I was sleeping when they left so Scott stayed behind until I woke up. Nan lisa was so great and pulled Jackson behind her bike so that he was able to go. When I woke up we got in the car and met them at Kristens house. It looked like they had soooo much fun, and they kids all seemed to love it! Kristen then took us to a little taco shop around the corner from her house. WOW! The Carne Asada tacos were incredible. Will Utah ever have good authentic Mexican food??? Scott traded Lisa on the way home and pulled Jack behind in the trailer. Kristen, Lisa, and I took little Lucy and headed back to the beach house in the cars. But of course on the way we stopped at the best ever... Beach Berries and got ourselves a little treat. Yummy!

AJ Neff Arrives!!!

My sister Candice, finally had her baby! A little boy! He is all Adam and so adorable. They named him Adam Mark Neff Jr., he was 6 lbs 6 oz and 19 inches. I am so happy that he his here and healthy! I am so excited for Candice and Adam to begni the journey of parenthood. Congratulations Candice and Adam!

Here are so me adorable pictures of their little guy...

Welcome to the world AJ... we love you!

My Life...?

Here are some random parts from my most recent days... and a few random thoughts inbetween....

1. Jackson spends most of his day in time-out (yes, I have a 2 year old). The other day I went to go get him out of his room and this is what I found.... He had gotten into some lotion that I had in a box in his room. Lesson #1: When a child moves to a bed and is no longer in his crib - you cannot keep anything... absolutley nothing in their room that they could get into. Lesson #2: When child is incredibly quiet - they are most likely doing something they shouldn't.

2. I try to go out on alot of walks. I usually walk about 2 or 3 miles. The other day I got lost and walked 4 miles. Pretty sure it was a little more than my preg body was used to, I was in a little too much pain by the time I was done.

3. Jackson got nailed right inbetween the eyes while out playing with the neighborhood kids. The bruise has slowly turned into a slight black eye. I think he looks like a tough guy with it.

4. My sister Candice is days away from having her first baby. She has had a couple showers so far and it has been so much fun watching her open all her fun gifts for her little one. She still does not know what she is having and i am so anxious to find out, I can't imagine how anxious she must be.

5. I am selling my Microdermabrasion machine. With a second baby on the way, I decided to be done working. I have it on Craigslist and have let a few Dr. offices know about it. I have had a few people interested but nothing has been set in stone. If you know anyone out there who might be - please pass the word along.

6. I am currently reading the book "The Host". It is Stephanie Meyers new book. It's a pretty good one. Nothing quite like Twilight, but still a good read.

7. Something weird about my child. He has an obsession with shoes. He absolutely freaks when he is not wearing his shoes. I think I could say he has a breakdown when he does not have them on. Somehow I get him to take naps and go to bed without them, but other than that, they are on first thing in the morning and they do not come off until he goes to bed. It is so bizarre.

8. This brings me to another subject about Jackson, shoes, and time-outs. Today I realized, just putting Jackson in his room for a time out doesn't really work. He could care less. And actually, I think he thinks its funny. So I tried taking away his dog that he sleeps with, that didn't work... I thought about spanking him, but then felt too guilty... so finally I decided to take away his shoes. OH MY!!! He went nuts! Can you believe it, his shoes? What is this kids obsession with shoes?

9. T.V. ... I just watched American Idol. I am glad that David Cook won. I have always liked him. But I loved "Little David" too. In fact, I don't think I would have cared either way. I can't wait for "So You Think You Can Dance", I love this one - even a little more than "American Idol". And how about "The Bachlorette"? Was that not hilarious! I loved all the geeky guys. I couldn't believe what some of those guys would do for her attention... come on... did they really think she thought any of that stuff was attractive?

10. I now have just 10 weeks left. I know is still along time, but I feel like once you get to 30 weeks, you can start counting down in weeks and that always feels good. So rather than saying, "I am 30 weeks preg", I can say, "I have 10 weeks left". It is a great feeling!

Fathers & Sons

My incredible dad was blessed with 4 daughters, 4 wonderful daughters... ha ha. Finally, on their 5th try he got his boy. My dad went many years without any boys to take to the ward Fathers and Sons camp out. So now to make up for it, whenever Fathers and Sons comes around he gets all the son-in-laws that live near by and head out for a night of camping.

This year Scott took Jackson to have a night out with the boys. The camp site was only about 10 minutes from my parents house so we decided if anything went wrong, he could just come back to the house. Thankfully, things went great! Jack had so much fun. They had cabins to sleep in with bunk beds, which Jacks thought was soooo cool, and little miny streams ran through the whole campsite so he was pretty entertained throwing rocks and sticks into the water. Jackson and Scott, doing the Father & Son thing.
Give this kid a flashlight, water, sticks, and rocks and he will entertain himself for hours! I am so glad that my dad now has so many sons to take with him. They have so much fun, and I know Scott loves going each year. I am so excited that Jack can now join the crowd. Its fun for him to be out with the boys and sooooo nice for me to have a night off with the girls!

Bye Bye Crib....

It is that time... time for Jackson to leave his crib and move on to bigger things... a "Big Boy Bed". With baby #2 on the way and only 2 1/2 more months to go, we figured we better get him out of the crib and used to something new so that we have a place for the new little babe to sleep at night.

I took Jack to pick out some bedding and we talked all day about how when Dad gets home he would set up his new bed and how fun it was going to be. So Scott came home, started to set up the bed and realized that we were missing some of the parts to the bed. It was to late to call the company we bought it from so we layed him down in his crib and he went crazy.... he did not want to sleep in his crib. He kept pointing to the headboard of his new bed and saying, "No, that bed, I want that bed"! I had no idea he was really excited to sleep in his big bed. It was so sad. So that next morning I called the company and went and picked up everything we were missing. We got it set up for that next night and Jackson was finally able to sleep in his big boy bed.

Here he is... still excited about the thought of sleeping in a bed.
Here he is.... not so excited about sleeping in a bed. Ha ha.
All in all, things have gone pretty good. He still crys everytime he has to go to sleep, but he always has cried, I think it's his way of working out the extra energy. He doesn't get out of his bed at night, not even in the mornings. But nap time... that is a different story. I have had a really hard time getting him to stay in his bed and actually take his nap. The only I have gotten him to sleep is if I lay with him. Which some days I don't mind, but other days I have things that I would like to get done. I have heard that alot of kids drop their naps when they change to a big bed, unfortunately I think this will probley be the case with Jackson. It's slightly depressing, but it's gotta happen sometime, right?