Utah

Last week I took the kids to Utah. It was a crazy week! I always forget how hard it is to have your kids at someone else's house, especially when Jeff isn't there with me to help.

Thursday night and Friday we went up to the cabin at wildwood. Kel was in town with her kids so it was really fun to see them again. The kids loved exploring the cabin and deck, playing in the water, and being with family. I enjoyed little tidbits of conversation that I could squeeze in between running after one child or the other and playing tennis with my dad.

Jackson on the deck
with Aunt Jenn
his first ride in a big boy swing!
Jackson LOVES my dad
Lexi got to play a lot with Katelyn

Saturday I went up to Salt Lake to get together with Jane's family, my mom (who was in town to help Jane shop for her house), and Isaac's family. We had dinner and then had a little birthday celebration for Lexi and Brooke. The girls couldn't have been happier with their princess cake!

Paxman cousins minus Sierra

Sunday plans changed (again!), and I stayed down in Provo. I went to Brooke & Rich's ward with Kel and her kids and Kathryn and Jenn. It was fun to see what their ward was like. You could just tell it was full of GREAT people. I ran into some friends from BYUH and one from BYULondon.

After church, Jackson loved being held by grandpa. I tried to get him to come to me so I could put him down for a nap, but he would just give me this smile as if to say "sorry mom, I'm happy where I am!"

Cute PaxHoop cousins enjoying popsicles

Monday Jane and I played waterballoon games with all of the kids outside and then went swimming at the Dastrups. They live up Provo Canyon and have the most beautiful place with an amazing view! That night JonJon came into town and we all had dinner and then did birthday cake for Lexi and Brooke with everyone. I can't believe my baby is three!

Cake, again!

And more presents!

Tuesday most of my family left to Lake Powell. Jane and I took our kids to the dinosaur museum with Elizabeth Harmer. It was really fun. Afterwards I packed up the car and the kids and headed home a day early! We made it home in five hours with no stops again. It's been nice to be home. I decided no more trips without Jeff. It's too hard!

Family Update

Well, it's been a long time since I just gave an update on the kids and what's going on with our family in general. So, here it is!

Jackson - he's 17 months now. In a few more weeks he'll go to nursery, and we can't wait! He is in to everything, loves making messes, and has a temper that already scares me! If you take something away from him, he'll start screaming, throw himself onto the floor, or the latest is he'll just start hitting and knocking things over. So fun! He still doesn't talk much. He's got mama, dada, Jackson (also sounds like "dada," but he points to himself), "nnn" for nose, moo sound, "woof woof" sound for dogs and "more," which he signs. A few weeks ago I went looking for him in the hall and found this:




and within a few days I went into the kitchen to get him, and he was no where to be found. Then I heard something and opened the door to this cupboard and found this:

Jackson also recently discovered how fun it was to lay back in the bath. Of course then Lexi had to show us that she could also lay back!

Lexi will be turn three next week. I can't believe it! She's having a hard time waiting for her birthday to get her presents, which she saw me buy a few days ago. Next time I'll shop without her! She has been busy lately. In May we signed her up for her first class. It was gymnastics and met once a week for six weeks. Here she is in her little outfit for the class:

She loves it. She calls it her "underwear dress!"

One night Jeff put it on Jackson. It looked so funny. Lexi didn't like seeing him in her dress!

The first day we got to class and Lexi ran to the mat and started biting her toes! My friend took a picture of it, becuase I didn't have my camera. Yuck! Lexi was a good head taller than everyone else in class. The teacher asked her how old she was, because it's supposed to be a class for 3 year olds, and she looks four. Lexi said "two." The teacher couldn't believe it, so she turned to me and asked, "how old is Lexi?" I just laughed and told her she really was two.

Here's Lexi on the bar doing her first and only flip. She thought it was scary, so the rest of the class when they did the bar she just hung from her arms and did a little swing back and forth. That was money well spent! :)

Last week Lexi also started swim lessons. Two of her friends, Ashley and Hailey, are also in the class. Lexi loves to run over to me during class and tell me what she did ("mom, I put my face under!" or "mom I kicked my legs!")

Poor Jackson just has to watch the action from his stroller.

Here's Lexi with Hailey and Ashley
A few weeks ago I found this Little Tikes climber/slide on craigslist. The kids have been on it all day everyday since. I think in the last three weeks we've already got our money's worth! We've had a crazy few weeks doing a ton of fun things. Lexi and I put on temporary tattoos!Last week we had classes every morning, two swim parties, and different things every night of the week. Here are the kids at one of the swim parties (they had a sandbox that they loved playing in after we swam).

And Wednesday night we went to the park and played tennis with our friends while the kids played at the park (we took turns watching the kids).

Thursday night we went to the temple. Friday night it was Ireland's first birthday party at the park.

Saturday Jeff went for an all day hike with the young men to the top of Mt. Charleston, and that night we went shopping at Town Square.

Friday night I was also asked to speak in church on Sunday. Ugh! Worst timing! They asked me to speak on how the Priesthood has affected my life. I did it, and I'm just happy it's over!

Jeff still loves the new firm that he is at, which is great. And me? I'm just trying to survive the craziness that is my life! :) No, things are great. I'm looking forward to a trip to Utah later this week to see my family/friends and meet my newest little niece!

I don't exist!

So, I've seen several blogs where people have gone to the howmanyofme.com site and figured out how many people have their same names. Well, I just did it, and here was my result:

There are 0 (zero) people in the U.S. named Judy Luszeck!

Wow, all this time I thought I was someone! Not only that, but they say that there are no people with the last name Luszeck. They just wiped out our whole family!