It's Great To Be Three!

Happy Birthday!

To my sweet Little Man & nephew, Tucker.

Their big days are a week shy of being a year apart. Parker turned 3 and Tucker turned 2. 

This year Grammie and Grandpa decided to take the boys to see Thomas in Heber City. (Parker loved it so much last year, and this year he loved it too!)

Here is Parker and me during our ride. We had a window seat, and you better believe he was pretty much hanging out the window the whole time!

 Parker and Grandpa

 Parker and Grandpa @ the hay maze... Right after this picture we noticed the signs that said not to sit or stand on the hay. Oops!

 Parker with Sir Topham Hatt. I think that it is so funny that this guy doesn't creep him out. 

I started Parker out young and let him get a tattoo.

Tucker got one too. Here are the boys comparing their new ink.

 The main attraction! It amazes me that this engine can cause so much excitement.

 Trying to get these two to both look at the camera at the same time is pretty exciting.

 Me and my Little Man. He's sporting his new birthday hat from Grammie and Grandpa.

That night we had a party for the boys at Grammie and Grandpa's house. 

 Oh boy! Cake is on the way!

 I love the Jackson Family tradition of putting a toy on the cake... Well, in this case two toys - for two cute boys!

He loved these tools from Great Papa and GG!

 These two got so spoiled! It was like Christmas morning with wrapping paper and toys everywhere!

 And when I say 'it was like Christmas morning,' I mean it! We looked outside and it was snowing... At the end of May! The next morning we woke up to this horrible site! LOTS OF SNOW! YUCK!

 The fresh 4" of snow we woke up to on May 29th. Not cool, Mother Nature. Not Cool!

So other than all that snow it was a great weekend. The weather was actually perfect for going to visit Thomas. The boys both had a ball. (Well, actually, Parker got a little cranky and hit another kid at the imagination station. YIKES! But in his defense there was about 100 kids all gathered around the tables trying to play with 70 trains. But still, it was NOT okay!)

Thanks, Mom and Dad! I know my little man had a great time and we had a really fun weekend with you.

When Parker and I headed home on Monday LaRae called and had us come out to the house and have cupcakes with the family. They had the house decorated and threw him a little Party. He loved it. :) I wish I would have had my camera... The SD card was full. I had to borrow Caity's when we were in Wyoming. I guess that means it's time to clean it off.

Big Announcement!!!

(No, we are NOT expecting... Check back later for that announcement.)

We're Moving!

Someday... Hopefully soon!

FOR SALE! 

4 beds, 3 baths, 2 car garage, open floor plan, vaulted ceilings, large yard (we more than doubled the size of our backyard with lots more room for it to grow.) 

All this in a quite neighborhood.

P.S. It also has brand-new carpet through the ENTIRE house! It looks amazing!

And our dogs are living in Boise with Aunt Vicki for the time being... So they haven't even had the chance to mess the new carpet up! Thanks, Aunt Vicki! You are a life saver! We love you!

So Matthew applied for a new job and got it... In Salt Lake. 

He is still working for Union Pacific, but his no longer on the trains. He is now teaching! Yay! He is teaching new-hire classes.

He will travel quite a bit - especially in the first year since they have hired so many new employees.

So... He is in Salt Lake (and all over the country - He was in Illinois during all the tornado craziness that was going on) and I am still here... Trying to sell our house. I hope that it sells soon. I don't like being a single mom. And Parker misses his Daddy. And I miss my Hubby.

I have some pretty mixed emotions about all of this. 

I am very excited for something new and different. I am excited to be so close to so much... Basketball games, soccer games, baseball games, concerts, museums, amusement parks, zoos, MY FAMILY (Rikki and Rory will be right there, and my parents will be just over an hour away.)...

But I'm also sad. We will miss Matt's family. And all of our amazing friends. And I feel like this is the end of my career. I've worked REALLY hard building my clientele... And now I feel like I'm walking away from it all... After 7 years of hard work. 
It makes me sad. Really sad.
I hope all of this works out... And I just want our house to sell so that it won't all be unknown anymore. 
So, I will keep you posted. 
And please pray for us. 
Thanks. :)

Let's Cruise, Baby!

Warning:

This post has a million-ish pictures.

(But in my defense, I didn't even post a 10th of the pictures I took.) :) 

So in March we went on a Western Caribbean cruise with our friends Matt & Jerrica. 

We had a ball!

I love, love, LOVE our cruise partners and can't wait till round 2! Jerrica and I got to know each other pretty well just before she got put in YW with me and then we became even better friends after. We started talking about going on a vacation together and finally booked a cruise in January... And hoped that our hubbies would get along. Good thing that they did. We teased them that they were on a mancation or a Mattcation. 

So my mom was awesome enough to take Parker for us for the week, and Matt and I had the time of our lives... Although we REALLY missed little man. (I cried when we dropped him off.)

Well, here are a *few* pictures of our amazing week in paradise.

This is us just messing around on the ship waiting to be able to get into our cabins before we set sail.

 Our Cruise Partners: Jerrica and Matt

 Us @ dinner on the first night

Us with our cruise director, George

 Us @ our first port-of-call in Cozumel

 Matt getting ready to para sail 

 It's my turn!

 Aaaahhh! I want to go back!

Yummy!

Us having and 'unBELIZEable' time in Belize... We are getting ready to go cave-tubing.

 Me in one of the caves

 Matt in one of the caves

 My favorite port-of-call... Isla Roatan, Honduras

 All harnessed in and ready to go zip-lining!

Yikes!

 Matt and his new furry friend

 Us with our assistant waiter, Alexander... He was so dang cute!

 Our head waiter, Erika with Jerrica and Matt

 A view of our ship from Grand Cayman... The Carnival Glory

 Yay! We went swimming with Dolphins...

And sting-rays!

 Look out behind you!

 I love Ray!

 Aaawww! What a sweet kiss.

 Us @ dinner on one of the formal nights

 Hanging out in Miami waiting to fly home. 

I know! These pictures do NOT do our vacation justice! It is so hard to choose just one or two from each event to show your whole vacation.

Like I said, I can't wait to go again! 

Our first cruise was so much fun and so relaxing, but this cruise was fun in a different way. It was so fun to have friends there to eat dinner, go to shows, play games, and make awesome memories. Yay for having a good time!

Everyone who said they were going next time... You better start saving your pennies! I'm saving mine! ;)

Christmas... Um... Ya, I know it's June...

FINALLY!!!

I have been trying to update my blog since oh, ya know... January. But I could never get my pictures to upload and I kept getting way frustrated. Now I'm so far behind and so much has happened I feel like I will never catch up.

So.... Here's Christmas.

We went over to Matthew's parents house on Christmas Eve. Parker and Grammie made cupcakes for Santa together. Parker absolutely loves helping in the kitchen.

'Santa' hard @ work!

Parker's loot from Santa

 Parker and Daddy on Christmas Morning

 It took him awhile to notice he had a stocking

 Helping Daddy open gifts

 Toy Story 3!

 We are kind of boring parents... We got him a bed (and Buzz Lightyear sheets) for Christmas.

 This car was BY FAR his favorite gift. Grammie and Grandpa Jackson gave it to him.

 Nathan and Paige

 Brooke and Anthony

 Us!

Christmas wasn't too bad this year. (Matthew had to work that afternoon.) We stayed here in town and celebrated with Matt's family. Parker was so fun this year. I love that Christmas is magic with when there are little ones around. :)