Snowboarding!

I learned something this weekend: Dixon genetics + snowboarding does not = success.

My sister has the pictures on her camera so if I ever get copies from them I will post some! Our camera died on the mountain so I don't know how many "action" pictures we have.

Justin took me snowboarding for the first time on Saturday. We went up to Copper Mountain with Crystal, Mark and Dave (my brothers and sister). It was so much fun but probably the most frustrating thing ever. During the portion of the day that I was actually on my feet I was going down the mountian sideways. I am happy to report that I only face planted 3 times to whole day. Those three falls were enough to bruise my knees up pretty bad! Justin had a few pretty good falls. I looked up (from my own crash) just in time to see Justin do three somersaults down the hill! Thank goodness for helmets- we definitly needed them!

Getting off the chairlift was pretty much impossible. They never had to completely stop the lift even though the guy in the control room had to oame to my rescue. It was pretty embarrassing but we all survived. My last time getting off the lift was my most graceful. I still fell but happened to land on the board so I was able to slide out of the unloading zone!

Snowboarding was definitly harder than people make it look and I don't think my body has ever been this sore! It was totally worth it! Hopefully next year we will be able to save enough money to go again!

Liam's room!

I am almost completely done with Liam's room. There are a few things, like the empty picture frames on his wall that need filling and the really crooked curtain rod that the tenants hung, that need to be fixed but other than that his room is complete! It is nice having a safe place for him to play that is out of our tiny living area.

Liam's room was the first to get set up! I was just so excited to hang the decor that I had made for his room!

Liam's room is as big as ours-lucky boy!

I made these from ribbon, srcapbooking paper and styrofoam. I just velcroed (is that a word?) them to the wall!

moving with a toddler

So 4 months ago I posted that packing with a toddler was impossible but man was I wrong! Unpacking is so much worse. I decided this afternoon as I sat on my couch, a big bowl of ice cream in hand, with Liam's screams from his crib to seranade me that we will forever live in a half moved-into diaster zone. I am ok with that though- for today anyways.

Newest Creation

I am getting really antsy to move into our own place again! To keep me busy I started making and brainstorming new decorating projects! The first on my list was a plaque for Liam's room. His infant nursery was blue and brown contemporary stripes so I thought I would go with a theme this time! I am set on not painting the walls because it took so long to undo it just wasn't worth it. I have some other things planned for his room but can't really work on them until we live in the house. Hopefully I will have his room finished in a month or so!

Sorry it is not a very good picture. It was really easy to make. I just cut out scrapbook paper and glued it onto a piece of wood and voila!

Christmas Crafting!

I am so excited for the Holidays this year! It seems like I am more excited than usual- maybe because Liam is old enough to have some fun this year. I have finished two of Liam's presents this past week! We are moving back to Greeley in a few weeks and am I so excited to decorate and organize Liam's room! I keep thinking of different storage ideas for all of Liam's toys that are in storage. He seems to have turned into a little boy overnight! He doesn't need a nursery anymore- he needs a room for him to play in!

These were the easiest things to make! The plastic ABC magnets at Walmart were quite what I was looking for so I decided to make my own fridge magnets! I found these cute wood cut outs at Hobby Lobby the other day. I just put a sealer over them and slapped a magnet on the back so I have easy to clean fun magnets for Liam now!

His ABC blocks took a little (and by a little I mean a lot) longer than the magnets to make! I just bought 1.5 inch wood blocks and painted them with arcylic paints. I put some stickers on them because my drawing skills are horrendous, and sealed them so they can be washed! Hopefully he will have fun stacking them and putting them in and taking them out the box!

Fall Happenings!

Sorry the pictures are sideways. I can't seem to get my computer to save the rotation so just cock your head to the left and then it will appear to be normal!


As you can see, Liam was a fierce tiger for Halloween! We were all sick and grumpy on the real Halloween and since Liam is still so young we just skipped it! We had to dress him up later for pictures just so we had them!

Justin snuck Liam his first chocolate chip cookie ever! Liam doesn't look guilty at all!

This was Liam's favorite part of Anderson Farm! It is this huge rabbit pen. They had alot of baby rabbits that were fun to watch.

He crossed the line!

Liam has finally crossed the line between a crawler and a walker! He is, as the peditrician said, the most cautious baby ever. He has had the balance and coordination to walk for months but has lacked the motivation and confidence! He has just started to take off and now he is walking almost everywhere. The only time he really crawls is if he is in a new environment that is making him nervous or if he needs to go as fast as he can so he can do something he knows is naughty!

Nah Nan

Thats how Liam says "all done". He waves his hand in front of him (usually throwing the food on his tray across the room) and yells "Nah Nan!". It is pretty cute but up until tonight he has only done it when he has finished eating. We were shopping today and he was pretty cranky. He started waving his hands around and yelling "Nah Nan, Nah Nan!". He did that pretty much constantly until we walked out of the store.

Skype-ing

So my sister, Tiff and her husband, Rick are living in Russia for the semester. There is a website called Skype that lets you do video calls for free. It just so happened that Tiff and I were online at the same time! We talked for over an hour for free with a video feed. It was pretty darn cool to be able to see/talk to her for free for so long! Thank you Skype!!!

Will they last? Probably Not.

My goal: To keep these from breaking at least until Christmas.

I found these cute wooden model kits at Joann's yesterday. They were like $2! Justin building Liam a toybox for Christmas so I thought- what good is a homemade toybox without homemade toys? I spent all day yesterday sanding and painting and glueing. We will see if they even last until Christmas. Even if they do he probably wont get to play with the pirate ship. I am sure he will impale himself.

Reaching New Heights...and dangers

Liam has figured out how to get on the kitchen table! He is so proud of himself and it is a constant fight to keep him off. I am not sure how he is always getting up. We move the chairs and somehow he is up again! We have only had two falls from the table top to the tile floor but that is 2 to many! He fell before church this morning and has a nice bruise in the middle of his forehead and a huge bottom lip. Now if only he would put that climbing energy into his walking...

Time to Grow Up

So Justin and I decided that maybe it was time to grow up alittle bit. We have been married for just over two years and have never had a budget! Thats horrible I know- especially with his Sam's Club income! I have worked really hard organizing our finances to begin debt payoff and starting a retirement fund as he now has that benefit at work! We are super excited to have finances in order and actually start living within our income instead of on credit!

I decided to make a visual reminder for us of our frugality so I decorated a pickle jar. Any extras will go in our jar and that will be our trip/ big date fund!

fall food storage!

I love the fall!

Out of all the seasons of the year fall is definitly the best season to be living with my mother! We have been working non-stop for the past 6 weeks on food storage! We have canned dozens of jars of salsa and marinara sauce, made about 150lbs of apples into yummy applesauce and applepie filling. Both my mom and I had a huge zuchinni harvest this year. We made over 50 loaves of zuchinni bread and have well over 100lbs shredded and frozen for more bread! I also made 8 jars of pumpkin pie filling from our giganitc miracle pumpkin (I thought my pumpkin plant died and then one day there was a huge pumpkin in the tomato plants). We are having alot of fun with the dehydrator too! I discovered that 16 bell peppers is about 1 quart dried. We also dried at least 16lbs carrots and a bunch of bananas for banana bread. She also had the dry pack canner from the stake for a while so we canned a few hundred #10 cans of flours, sugar, noodles, rice, powdered milk, popcorn but no wheat : ) ! I am finally proud of my food storage even though it is still small at least it is growing alittle! We are almost done with everything- finally! There is not much room left for everything. Her freezers (yes plural) in the garage are busting at the seam and we can't even close the door to the food storage room! Her house is a disaster because we always have something going on in the kitchen! I have learned so much from her and almost feel like I might be able to can on my own next year!

We are using the Wendy DeWitt food storage program!

Check out her blog at everythingunderthesun.blogspot.com

Scroll to her first post and it will explain her program!

2 Years!!!!!

2 years ago today Justin and I were sealed in the Logan, Ut temple! What a crazy two years it has been! It went so fast! Here are a few of the things we have done since that beautiful day:

*honeymooned during a hurricane in Mexico

*bought a duplex that doubles as our home and additional income

*had a beautiful baby boy (alittle early than planned though : ) )

*both started school full time and finally picked our majors!

*got a dog and 2 cats (all though one didn't last too long)

*fallen in love over and over again

I feel so blessed to have been lucky enough to marry a man who is so wonderful. He is a better father than I ever could have imagined. I love being married to my best friend. All though we have had some very stressful times and have gone for days without seeing each other due to conflicting schedules, I couldn't ask for anything more. Everyday I learn something new about him and I just fall in love all over again. I never really knew what being truly happy was until we took the step and gave each other an eternal commitment. I love you Justin and I can't wait to see where we will go this year!

Fun- a water dish!

Happy Birthday Liam!

One year ago today we welcomed our little man into the world! He was born at 9:53 pm and weighed 7lbs 15oz and was 20.5 inches. I can't believe how much has changed in that short precious year! Right now Liam is climbing on our moving boxes and unpacking for us. Its alittle counterproductive but oh well. I can't believe how wonderful being a mother is and I am so blessed to have the opportunity to stay home with him. I can't imagine our life without him. I am still amazed at how incredibily blessed women are to have the opportunity to be the mother. What a divine role that is!






At 1 year Liam...

• weighs in at 20lbs 9 oz
• is 29.5 inches tall
• He is stubborn! He knows what he wants and it takes alot of effort to distract him!
• Loves Peanut butter and Jelly Sandwiches
• Doesn't say obvious words yet but talks all the time
• He sings in the car
• Loves to climb- anything taller than the carpet he climbs- his newest height is the chairs at church
• Always has something in his mouth and keeps it there indefinitly
• is addicted to his pacifier
• has 12 teeth!
• loves his sock monkey
• loves his puppy, Riley
• can stand very well but hasn't built up the courage to walk yet

Happy Birthday my precious little baby!

Maybe I should go to the dentist...

Liam had a tooth sticking straight out of his mouth. I touched it and then it fell out! Then I touched my own tooth and it fell out. Well, that started a domino effect and soon my hands and mouth were full of teeth! To top it all off my gums fell out too. The worst part was that the teeth in my hands as well as my gums were all black and nasty. Needless to say, I was thankful to wake up to a mouth full of white teeth that are still solid in my gums and my gums are still part of my mouth.

oh so tired

Playing is hard work! He fell asleep in the hallway with his leg on the wall!

oh the joys of packing

I had no idea how hard it would be to get ready to move with Liam around! He is one busy toddler! If we were just moving it wouldn't be so bad. Just throw everything in a box and call it good. Since we are renting out our home we have to go and plaster and touch up the walls with paint, fix the doorbell, fix the sprinklers, fix the closet door, paint the back door, hang the cabinet... and the list goes on and on and on. We have exactly 1 week left to finish and have the house cleared out. We just got a storage unit here in Greeley so I am trying to organize everything so if we need something it wont take hours to find.
Liam is a great helper with packing. He pulls everything out of the drawers for me. Then he pulls it out of the box I just put it in. It is all taking at least twice as long as I had hoped! He is so proud of himself that you just can't get frustrated!!!

Feeling Left Out!

Since like a dozen friends moved this summer Justin and I were feeling left out. So, we are moving too. I promise, it is not nearly as exciting as everyone else's move. We decided to go live in my parent's basement for the fall semester. We are trying to save up for a single family home. With the housing market here and since we already own a house we need to save up a 10% down payment, 6% closing cost (hopefully the seller will help) and the 2 months resevere mortgage payments for our current property. We were told if the market turns and is officially no longer a declining market then we don't need to save nearly as much. We decided to take advantage of my parent's hospitality and jump start our savings. We will be back in Greeley in December though. We will probably rent a small apartment for the remainder of the lease that is current on our duplex (Aug 2010).

Its kind of scary to do this but I think in the long run it will be good. If it doesn't get us into a house at least we will have some reserve money in the bank so Justins stress level will drop.

To All our Greeley Friends- Don't Forget about us! Loveland is not that far away and we will be back!

A wonderful surprise visit!

We got a call on Saturday evening from Grandma Karen, Justin's mother. She was on her way home to St. George, Ut from Soda Springs, ID and decided to turn left at the fork in the road and come to visit instead! It was finals week this week so it was such a blessing having a in-home, on-demand babysitter! We tried to convince her to stay longer but unfortunatly she doesn't think her work would like her calling in sick on the first day back from summer vacation!

Well, Liam's 1st birthday is about 2 weeks away (I can't believe it!) so we did a mini birthday party with Grandma Karen here! It took Liam a long time to try the cake. He just played with it and through it on the floor! Silly boy! He really liked the Little People's farm though! I think his favorite was the Winnie the Pooh Laptop! Now he has his own buttons just like mommys!

Liam sure enjoyed playing with Grandma Karen! He got pretty attached to her. Every morning when we would walk around the corner to find Grandma he would get a concerned look on his face and then a huge smile when he found her!

She left this morning and we miss her already. We are devising a way to convince her to move closer! 10 hours is just too far!

What a wonderful morning surprise!

Justin usually sleeps like the dead. It takes him an hour or two to be up and going. Today however, he jumped out of bed at 7 am and started cleaning! We spent 4 hours cleaning our house today and now it just sparkles. I was sad I missed walking with my friends, especially since a few of them are moving soon, but I wasn't about to miss this opportunity!

Puppy School

So, I am pretty sure our puppy, Riley, is going to be the first ever dog to be kicked out or failed out of puppy school. We go to our first class last night and there are three other 5-10lbs squeak toys running around. Riley is pushing 35 lbs (at 3.5 months) and was just so excited about these other dogs. Naturally, the other dogs weren't too excited about him. Next week the teacher wants us to let the dogs run around and play. I should call the vet and give them a heads up that three little dogs are on there way from being run over by mine.

Mom's Party!

This year we actually celebrated Mom's brithday within a week of her actual day. I think last year it took us a few months- sorry Mom. We had a fun BBQ at Mom and Dad's. Dad made his delicious apple cinnamon puffs in his dutch ovens- absoltutly amazing! Holly and Aronn then set up a showing for our family of Harry Potter at the theater! After sweeping up all the messy popcorn (yes, we had to clean the theater) Aronn took us up to the room which has a name that I don't know. I will call it the window room. He showed us how the movies are shipped and projected. It was pretty cool. It was fun having the huge theater just to our family! Happy Birthday Mom!

Happy Fourth of July!

Apparently really old Graco Walkers aren't that great at keeping kids in the seats.

We had a great 4th of July! Justin, Liam and I went to my parent's ward breakfast that morning. After alot of pancakes and fruit we launched a bunch of rockets! Liam was to tired to even care. One of the rockets was too heavy for the rod on the paunch pad so Justin and my Dad got brooms out and held the brooms against the rockets to stabilize it. After all rockets were launched everyone was surprisingly injury free!

Justin had to work that night so he went home to sleep. Lame, I know. Liam, Riley (the dog) and I went to Loveland. We spent the whole afternoon at GiGi's (my gramma) and Great Grandaddys. We did dinner, played with cousins and watched the fireworks! Liam really liked the fountain ones. He would stand up and stretch his arms out and move his hands like he was trying to grab it.

Overall it was a wonderful 4th and Liam seemed to enjoy his first ever! Maybe next year Justin wont have to sleep and work through it. Hope everyone had a wonderful time!

David has bad aim.

Record time at Church!

We spent all of 10 mins in church today. As usual we showed up 5 mins late meaning we spent the passing of the sacrement in the foyer. The alarm serenaded our sacrement-taking. As soon as it was over we wandered into the dark chapel to find the congregation saying another prayer. My first thought was "oh, they added a new sacrement piece". Idiot, I know! After praying in the dark everyone got up and left! We walked through the church building and there is only one light circuit working and 3 alarms going off! So, under 15 mins in and out! Impressive!

Nothing says "Good Morning" like chocolate chip pancakes!

Liam got to try his first chocolate chip pancakes this morning. I only put a few chocolate chips in it but it was sure messy. Naturally, he loved it!

Welcome!

I finally decided to jump on the train and make a blog. I have no idea what I am doing but I'll figure it out as I go! Now I can have a fun place to post pictures, updates and all of my many random thoughts!