September/ October 2010

 Some happenings from September and October 2010 in no particular order:

• Broken Arm

Sterling broke his arm on Friday, October 8, at 10 p.m. He was horsing around on a chair and stood up on the arm of it. Before Scott or I could reach him, he was already down on the ground on his arm. We knew something was wrong by his inability to be calmed. Plus, he kept walking around holding onto his arm where it was broken, with his other hand. Sure enough, xrays and a Dr. visit confirmed that his radius bone was broken right by the wrist. If you look at the Xray, you'll notice a bump jutting out to the left where the buckle fracture is.  He wore his cast for 3 weeks and finally has it off.

• Baby Boy   

We found out that our next baby is a boy! We're due March 4th, so moving right along... Makayla was quite upset when she heard the news. She actually started crying and pleaded, "But I just wanted a sister. Why can't I have a sister?!?" She was sad about the boy news, but Sterling will have a little buddy to play with. He will probably really enjoy being able to have a little friend that's close in age.

• Sickness

Yuck! We've really been down on our Health Luck this past month. Makayla picked up pink eye from Nursery about 2 weeks ago. Then she gave it to Sterling, who gave it to Scott, who gave it to me. So everyone in our family had this. Also, I picked up a nasty cold from school that I spread to everyone. It was so bad that Scott actually went to the Dr. (very rare) to get it Strep tested. It's just a nasty virus that isn't strep, but makes you feel as lousy as if you did have it.  And we've been fighting that for 10 days now, but finally, it's leaving our home. And lucky for us, our kids got the mild version compared to Scott and myself.

• Car Troubles

We've had to get so many things fixed on both our our cars. Scott had to get a new windshield and a new O2 Sensor to pass inspections. I have had to get a new water pump and a new thermostat and a new radiator cap. Even with all this work, my car is still overheating within 3 miles of driving! So I've been driving Scott's Jeep around for 2 weeks. It's hard limping around with 1 car. It makes you appreciate what you do have, especially when it's fixed.  Can't wait till that is!

• 1st Haircut

Before

After

Grandma Diane was a great help and cut Sterling's hair for the first time. She made it fun by doing it outside while he watched his sister jump on the trampoline.  She also gave me some great tips if I ever get brave enough to cut his hair.

• Broken Furnace

We tried to fire up our furnace the last week of October to find out that it was complately D E A D ! So after a few heater experts climbed up in the attic to look at it, we were told that the control panel was fried. So we had to buy a new one to get it working again.  Now, we are thankful for the funtioning furnace.

• Grandma's 80th Birthday

Grandma Hebdon's 80th birthday was celebrated with a party in the park complete with a little skit. A lot of time was put into this which made it all the merrier. :)

• Circus Trip

Our family enjoyed an outing to the circus. Makayla, of course, did awesome. Sterling was a bit restless, but it was fun to get out and do something different.

• Halloween



Halloween, jam packed with excitement, was celebrated all day Saturday. First, we went trick or treating at South Towne Mall which was crazily busy. Next, we stopped by Grandma Diane's house to find my sister from Vegas surprise visiting :) Then we ran over to our ward and participated in the Trunk-or-Treat, and finally, we ran over to our favorite spook alley neighborhood in Millcreek and met up with some friends.

Finally, our update is complete...........   :)

July/August 2010

Well, I've been slacking on the posts, but we've really been enjoying ourselves. Here are some things we've been up to this summer:

We spent a week up in Ogden Canyon with my family. My sister arranged/rented condos for us, so it was really fun, and we enjoyed each others company.  Some things we were able to do up there are: Play on the lake, go to the Train Museum, go to the Children's Treehouse Museum, go to a big movie (How to Train Your Dragon), go fishing, and play tons at the resort, things such as swimming, volleyball, tennis, racketball, and card/ strategy games. It was really fun to spend time with everyone :)

We spent a week in Torrey, Utah with Scott's family. That is down in the middle of nowhere, right by Capitol Reef National Park.  We rented a cabin and went ATV'n several times. We would find little trails through use of a map and go find old houses and mines, etc. We also explored Capitol Reef Park, of course. It was pretty fun, but a little tricky when each parent is balancing a kid while driving a four wheeler. Challenging, but a good trip.

We bought Connect Passes to go explore Salt Lake area. We spent 3 great days going to Hogle Zoo, Heritage Park, Clark Planetarium (shows), Thanksgiving Point Dinosaur Museum and Gardens, Snowbird (rode the tram), The Aquarium, The History Museum at the U, lunch at the Lion House, etc. It was action packed but definitely tiring. We had a good time :)

So, we've had a pretty adventuresome summer. Too bad it's over! I've already been back to work since August 16th.  Hey, only 19 more weeks until Christmas break!

P.S. Just to see who actually reads my blog, I'm pregnant! (13 weeks and due March 4th) Sterling and his younger sibling will be 20 months apart :)

June 2010

Some things we were able to do in June are:

Send Ben Off -  My brother Ben is officially a missionary in the Seattle, Washington Mission.  We're proud of his decision to serve the Lord.

Go to the Zoo -  Thanks Thierry for inviting us to the zoo. It was fun to do something different!

Buy a New Dishwasher - Our old dishwasher was on the fritz and decided to leak water and bubbles all over the kitchen floor. This is on top of refusing to drain at all. What a mess!

Celebrate Sterling's Birthday - Our baby is now 1 years old. We celebrated by taking him to Chuck E. Cheese and let him go on some rides after eating some pizza. He enjoyed it thoroughly. He is such a great kid and super smiley to be around. (That is, unless he has had shots recently. Holy cow, his 4 shots have affected him for a week.) Sterling can successfully walk around and knows how to scream to let us know Makayla is teasing him again.

Go to Lagoon - We took Makayla to Lagoon with some Paxton cousins. She was super excited the whole day. As soon as we got off a ride she would ask, "What's next?" "Where do we go now?" Even though we hung out in kiddie land most of the day, it was enjoyable to see how happy Makayla was.

Get World's Best Deal - I found a bike for Makayla at a yard sale for One Dollar! Although the training wheels were an extra Ten Bucks, that is a steal of a deal and I know it was a big blessing to find it.

Our Anniversary - Yesterday (the 29th) was our 8 year mark of marriage. Really, it's already been that long? So we celebrated by bouncing back to Lagoon, this time kidless. It was really awesome to go on the rollercoasters and thrill rides that we couldn't go on last week. We're also getting a babysitter this weekend to go on another real date :)

Grow Some Grass - Although you can't mow it or really walk on it, it's there, grass!!! So we've been watering like crazy to get it to grow.

See you next month :)

May-ish 2010

You're probably wondering what's happened to the Paxtons. Or, maybe you haven't even noticed that we're about 2 weeks behind our goal of posting at least once a month.  Well, the truth is, May just flew by, and the past 2 weeks, we've just been working like crazy on our front yard.  We've gone from weeds to hydroseed and from piles of dirt to a nice curbed mound of rocks and bushes. And every spare second we've been outside shoveling rocks pretty much. So yeah, we've been pretty busy, not to mention sore, when you're shoveling 32,000 pounds of rocks by hand and putting them where they'll look nice.  And the 30 plants that Scott and his mom picked out and planted for us are surely appreciated. At church last week on Sunday, the 20 compliments we got sure made us feel worthwhile.  Also, the strangers that have stopped on their bikes and others who've held dogs on leashes to put in a good word about our yard, have made us feel happy.  So, thank you, people for noticing. Yes, it's been a lot of work. And we did run out of money for the backyard this year, but, hey, it's a start. And we still have a little work left to do on the mound, but we have accomplished a big task.  One that will benefit us for the years to come.  It'll be nice to actually have a yard to run around on. And great to have a buffer before kids run into our busy street.  So, this is what we've been up to.

Makayla has been a good big sister.  Almost every day, Scott finds her in Sterling's crib in the morning, just playing with him and entertaining him.  That's helpful since Scott works nights and is not always completely alert in the mornings while I'm at work.  So Kayla makes sure to wake up her dad to let him know that Sterling is up for the day.

Sterling has been walking more and more. Yesterday, I counted him taking 49 steps around the house - IN A ROW- without even falling down.  He is so much more confident with the walking thing.  He hardly even has to think about it. Of course, when I tried to film it, he wasn't that in to trying, but I did get a clip of him for a bit. He now has 3 teeth and 2 more are about to pop through.

I have wrapped up yet another school year. Now I have 8 years under my belt. I never would have guessed I'd still be teaching, but it does pay the bills. And at least Scott is there for our family, so we don't have to pay for daycare, and we can be there for our kids.  I am officially out for the summer, YEAH!!

April 2010

Well, the remainder of our tax return was spent on 2 used 4 wheelers and a trailer to pull them. We finally got them registered, the oil changed, and ready to go.  When we finally finished, it was late on a Saturday afternoon (April 10th).  We had already told Makayla that we were going and she was insistent - (Mental note - Don't tell 3 year-olds something unless you are following through with it). So at 6 p.m. we ended up going to Five Mile Pass in Tooele County.  We arrived around 7 and had a blast..... that is....... until we were all packed up ready to go back home and I reached in my pocket and NO WAY, my new phone was gone! It had bounced out of my pocket in all of the excitement! And it was getting dark! The sun was nearly down, yet I didn't want to give up. I convinced Scott that he should look for my phone while I watch the kids.  For over an hour, he took a four wheeler and drove around in the dark and called my phone several times. (to no avail) Then we drove around in the car looking for my phone, hoping it would light up, or make noise.........something.  Well, now it was pitch black, and the kids were getting ornery. I don't blame them.  SO....... I had to leave my brand new phone in the mountains at Five Mile Pass.  And now 2 or 3 rain and snow storms later, I know it's not functioning.  The most depressing part is that it had my memory card in it, and PRICELESS photos that I never even thought to download anywhere.  So I've lost very precious photos and video footage of my kids. At least Scott has his memory card still.

Sterling has been improving on his balance.  He has been walking around with Makayla's doll stroller and a toy airplane and a walker toy every day. It's very cute to see him stroll across the room holding onto a toy.  Also, he cut his second tooth (bottom middle) on April 6th.  Sterling has been attempting to mount the stairs both ways, up and down. It's so important to keep an eye on him because he's fast!! 

Makayla is obsessed with being a princess. Every day she is dressing up in her princess clothes and accessories and parading them around the house. Thanks to her cousin  Maddy, she has quite the selection, a whole trunk full of choices. Last week when it was time for dinner, of course all decked out, she suggested: "I'm a princess. I don't have to eat my dinner!" :)

I've had more meetings than normal for school. It's been a really insane week for special ed things. Even today (Friday night) I got home at 5:30 p.m. I'm going crazy!  I'm really looking forward to summer vacation! Only 20-something more school days, yeah!!!