Boise

This last weekend we got to go visit marks sister, her husband, and their triplet girls! They just built a new house that is beautiful! They were awesome company and we had a blast! We went shopping and just kind of had a relaxing weekend at their home! Thanks Kyle and sunny for the great weekend!!

Walk through life....

Who would have thought that a 15 month old with a face like this........

....could learn to throw temper tantrums and get whatever he wants. Its interesting and exciting to watch the way that Paxton learns. He is entering a stage where he runs around and wants things, but he doesn't know how to communicate with mom to tell her his needs/wants. The way he gets my attention is by pointing and saying "uh uh" or screaming :) I've been trying to teach him how to say certain things, and it seems like kids at this age are little sponges. They pick up on things so quickly and copy cat things that they see mommy or daddy do. As i try to teach Paxton and make every day decisions on the best way to teach him and not get mad, it makes me think about how important every little decision we make in our life is. How different would my life be if I hadn't made the friends that i did in high school?  If i wouldn't have hung out with Jake Anderson, I would have never met my husband Mark (Jake's missionary companion)......If I wouldn't have ever met Mark, I wouldn't be able to experience tender moments like this.....

If I wouldn't have been raised in the gospel and stuck to my little mustard seed size of faith that i had growing up (Elder Jeffrey R. Holland's talk Sunday afternoon session of General Conference), I wouldn't have the knowledge and comfort of knowing that I get to be with the most important people in my life for ETERNITY! I don't know about you, but life isn't long enough for me! I can't imagine life or eternity without these people! Mark applied to the Nursing program at BYU-Idaho 2 or 3 times and didn't get accepted, but he applied to CSI (here in Twin Falls) and got accepted much sooner than he thought. Is it a coincidence that Mark and I moved to Twin? I don't think so.....I'm not exactly sure what our purpose is here, If it was for us to grow and learn to depend on one another, or if it was for us to help others learn and grow. All I know is that we have met great people here in Twin Falls and they have all been great examples to us. The little day to day decisions....and even the big decisions like moving to Twin Falls help shape us into the people that we will be throughout the rest of our life. I hope and pray that I can continue to make the decisions that really count, and that will make me a better person. Here are a few pics of our conference weekend!

 Mommy and Pax watching conference

 Grandpa and Paxton doing yard work between sessions on saturday

 Ryan and Caroline playing with Pax

Paxton loving his chicken nuggets!....He insisted on eating them with a spoon :) 

It was so good to spend time with family over conference! I got to see my parents, my sister Amy and her family, she just had her 4th baby Wyatt who is adorable! I got to see my Sister Katie who is such a sweetie pie and great aunt to Paxton, and my brother ryan and his girlfriend caroline. (Wish Aaron and Katie were around so that we could see them too!) Anyway we had a great weekend, and I hope that i will be able to teach Paxton to fertilize his little mustard seed size of faith, so that his walk of life will take him somewhere extraordinary!!!!!! (High school, mission, marry in the temple, college degree) This momma has high hopes and aspirations for her little 15 month old! :) Love you Pax!

 Walk through life!

Easter Week!

Easter wasn't a one day Holiday at our house, we celebrated for a week and a half :) We feel so blessed to have most of our family (Mark's & Mine) within driving distance. Paxton loves to go visit the grandparents on both sides, and all of his little cousins. The week before Easter was Mark's spring break, he had a WHOLE week off of nursing school (so....nice), so we decided to go to Star Valley and visit his side of the family. All of his brothers and their families got to come, the only ones that were missing were Kyle and Sunny and the triplets. Hopefully they can come next time! Here are a few of the activities we did over the break!

 We left late friday night after i got off of work, so Paxton was a little overstimulated in these pictures if you can't tell :) He was eating chicken nuggets and loving life at 10pm!

 We went to see the Elk in Alpine

 Daddy showing Paxton the Mountain Goats on the mountain headed to Jackson

 Mommy and Pax 

 Paxton and his only other boy cousin on the Pendleton side Jackson! They are good buddies!

 Mark's brother Justin turned 30. His creative wife made him a "hole in one" birthday cake.

 Grandpa ticking Paxton

 Mark's HAIRCUT! There will be a post on this later :) He was sad ha ha!

 Grandpa and Pax playing cars

 Daddy and Pax playing peek-a-boo with mom

 Our way back from Wyoming......He was tuckered out as you can see! We also had an Easter egg hunt for the little ones, but i can't seem to find my pics! Will post later! 

EASTER SUNDAY....

 The Easter Bunny made it to our house......in the middle of the night :)

 Ok, Jake and Chelsi....some of our very best friends sent this adorable card with a dollar bill in it for Paxton for Easter! It was so cute and thoughtful of them! We sure are lucky to have such wonderful friends and second parents to Pax :) We love you guys! 

 You can see he loved it! 

 He's been on a sugar high ever since :)

Hope you all had a wonderful Easter as well! .... I hope it was spent with family and pondering on Christ and the wonderful gift he gave us, eternal life with Heavenly Father and our families! 

How lucky are we.......

Rigby!

So my parents surprised us with a little visit on Saturday evening, and stayed with us until Monday....when the time came for them to leave, I got thinking that I didn't have to work until Thursday and mark is busy with school so pax and I jumped in the car and headed to Rigby :) we had all kinds of fun! And now tomorrow we get to go to star valley and Pax gets to see grandpa and grandma Pendleton! We are excited!

Mommy Time

Today I want to talk about Mommy time!.......

I gave a talk in Church last sunday, and my topic was on Christ and Christ's parables. It was a really hard topic for me, because I knew parables were stories that Christ used to teach the people of his day, but i didn't know why?....Why wouldn't he just say things the way they are instead of making up a story to get his point across? Well on my journey to find different conference talks and information to use for my talk I came across some of the most wonderful talks on mothers! I know Mother's day is still a little far off, but I couldn't help but post some of my feelings!

I have the MOST WONDERFUL mother in the WORLD!

• She calls me out of the blue to see how I am holding up over here in Twin Falls
• She face times Paxton all of the time so he doesn't forget his grandma
• She gives advice whenever it is needed, but not in an overbearing kind of way
• She would drop anything at anytime and put me first!!!!!!!!
• She takes time out of her busy day to sew blankets for Paxton (she made his crib set) and......

She made this adorable blanket out of my Dad's old Shirts for Pax!! I'm in LOVE with it!

As I was thinking about the amazing mom that I have, and everything she has done and continues to do for me, I couldn't help but think about the kind of Mother I want to be for Pax....and my future children.   Working as a nurse has its ups and downs, but one of the downsides is that I work extra long shifts, and many times Pax is asleep when I leave, and is going to bed when i get home. Those days are always hard! I find myself missing him so much! But one of the upsides of nursing, is that because i work long shifts, I only have to work 2-3 days a week which is amazing :) On the days that I am home, I find myself exhausted at the end of the day trying to keep up with Paxton, doing laundry, picking up after Pax, feeding pax, doing the dishes, picking up after pax, going to the grocery store, feeding pax, picking up after pax.....you get the idea ;) So i've finally decided, that sometimes its ok if my house looks like this - 

I've decided that I can do all of the cleaning and the major chores after Pax goes to bed! I never once felt like my mom had more important things to do. She always took the time to teach me and talk to me. She made sure that she was in the middle of my life and knew what was going on with me. It was the simple little day to day things that made me know that she cared, and I want to be that mom for Pax. So I have made a huge effort to make my time during the day with Paxton count....here's what we've been up to!

 Mickey Mouse Breakfast!

 Going on early morning walks :)

 Pax loves to go jogging with mom

 This beautiful scenery is about 100 yards from our apartment! 

 Awesome jogging trail all along the canyon

I look terrible but this is the best shot we could get ha ha

Paxton is getting so busy now, that every time i turn around he's in another room pulling things out of cupboards....I've decided not to get to frustrated, because it is so fun watching him find things and explore! They learn so quickly at this age! I don't want to miss any part of Pax growing up! He's only this little once. I don't want to be the bossy mom always telling him what NOT to do....I want to give him guidelines and let him figure things out on his own. Although it is hard watching him struggle with things and not being able to just do it myself ;)  Here are a few more pics!

 Uh oh...he got caught!

 He loves pulling things out of my vanity cupboards

 Just made a little mess :) 

Loves playing basketball in the kitchen!

Sorry about the super long post, but I don't want to forget this time in our lives! Going back to christ's parables....after reading almost everyone, I came to the conclusion that they are not about the lost coin, sheep, or prodigal son.....they are all about Christ's compassion, love, and example. The reason he didn't just say things how they were, is because he didn't want to tell people how to do things. He gave them an example and gently gave them the invitation to "think about it". We all learn on different levels, and I want Pax to know that its ok for him to learn on different levels, and there are more than one way to do things. Your mommy loves you Pax!